# Another select\_list question - bad bad booleans **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [March 1, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/another-select-list-question-bad-bad-booleans/75112 "2006-03-01T07:36:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/another-select-list-question-bad-bad-booleans/75112/1 "2006-03-01T07:36:48Z")
I have a select list for a boolean column in postgresql in the ‘model’ … YES\_NO = [ [“Yes”, “1”], [“No”, “0”] ].freeze in the ‘view code’ … \<%= options = [[‘Accepted?’, ‘’]] + Placement::YES\_NO select(“placement”, “accepted”, options) %\> When creating new records, I can select Yes or No and it writes the proper value to table. When I edit existing records, unlike other select list menus which automatically go to the existing value in the select list, the ‘Accepted’ list always displays "Accepted?’ (the prompt, never the value) in the pop-up selected list, no doubt because it cannot figure out the reverse translation of existing column 0’s and 1’s backwards to Yes : No logic. What is the trick to do that? Thanks Craig ---
**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/another-select-list-question-bad-bad-booleans/75112/2 "2006-03-01T08:35:27Z")
I know this doesn’t answer your question… it’s late here, but why are you using a drop down for a binary choice instead of something like a check box or radio button? \_Kevin ---
**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/another-select-list-question-bad-bad-booleans/75112/3 "2006-03-02T02:42:26Z")
using radio buttons for a boolean defies logic as I can’t make sense of the api radio\_button\_tag(name, value, checked = false, options = {}) from my example below… \<%= radio\_button\_tag(‘placement’, ‘accepted’ ‘?’ %\> field is to have either 0 or 1 - display should be “Yes” or “No” The pop-up list for Yes or No works fine except that in edit mode, the value already exists in the column and all I really need is for it to preselect “Yes” or “No” based upon the column contents. The above radio button api (with absolutely no examples) doesn’t make a lick of sense to me. Craig ---
**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2006, 8:41am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/another-select-list-question-bad-bad-booleans/75112/4 "2006-03-01T08:41:51Z")
Probably because I understood drop down boxes (at least until this issue) and hadn’t bothered to do any checkboxes/radio buttons yet. - No reason that I can’t change my bad habits I guess. It does sort of make sense to use a radio button since either is required and I suppose I can default it one way for ‘new’ records. Hmm…radio buttons… Probably too late to tackle tonight as I am pretty much fried but even with radio buttons, I will have to reverse the binary logic of stored boolean back to common Yes/No vernacular. Thanks Craig ---
**Author:** ![craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@craigrails](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/craigrails)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/another-select-list-question-bad-bad-booleans/75112/5 "2006-03-02T03:04:04Z")
Solved - never mind. Good lesson learned and anyone else using booleans in postgres 0 and 1 are not what rails derives from tables…TRUE FALSE is what rails obtains from tables. Craig