# Can i translate what name\_ID from a belongs\_to relationship? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 26, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530 "2006-08-26T16:39:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 4:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/1 "2006-08-26T16:39:07Z")
hi. simple question. i have a table that contains a town\_id column. is there a way to get what town name it is from a town\_id? my table ‘profiles’ belongs\_to table ‘town’, and town has\_many profiles. or do i just execute a find\_by\_sql on town\_id number and use the string name it returns? thanks ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2006, 6:39pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/2 "2006-08-26T18:39:12Z")
koloa wrote: > hi. simple question. i have a table that contains a town\_id column. is > there a way to get what town name it is from a town\_id? my table > ‘profiles’ belongs\_to table ‘town’, and town has\_many profiles. or do i > just execute a find\_by\_sql on town\_id number and use the string name it > returns? You should be able to say profile = Profile.find() town\_name = profile.town.name –Al Evans ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 12:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/3 "2006-08-27T00:25:33Z")
hi thanks for the reply. i tried it but its a no go. i also tried appending id2name, to\_s, and to\_i but no avail. i even just tried printing out the town\_id but that also doesnt work?! basically my @profile = Profiles.get\_details where get\_details returns hash of all columns for the profile from the Profiles table profile should contain all the columns in the profile table, this includes town\_id which belongs to town table but when i try printing out town\_id with this line logger.debug @profiles[0][‘doctype\_id’] , i get ‘String can’t be coerced into Fixnum’ Al Evans wrote: > koloa wrote: > > > hi. simple question. i have a table that contains a town\_id column. is > > there a way to get what town name it is from a town\_id? my table > > ‘profiles’ belongs\_to table ‘town’, and town has\_many profiles. or do i > > just execute a find\_by\_sql on town\_id number and use the string name it > > returns? > > You should be able to say > > profile = Profile.find() > town\_name = profile.town.name > > –Al Evans ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/4 "2006-08-27T00:31:07Z")
closer now: @profiles[0][‘doctype\_id’].to\_s it prints the id number, now i am working out trying to see if i can translate the id to the actual name that the id matches to… ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/5 "2006-08-28T01:59:34Z")
Can you post the relevant code from your two models and migrations? ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/6 "2006-08-28T02:31:41Z")
> basically my > > @profile = Profiles.get\_details > > where get\_details returns hash of all columns for the profile from the > Profiles table Out of interest - why are you doing this instead of using the fields provided by ActiveRecord? The idea behind AR is that you can do Profiles.find(:all) and then for each profile use profile.name or even traverse relationships like profile.town.name. Cheers, Max ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 4:10am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/7 "2006-08-28T04:10:39Z")
hello, basically i have a search process that displays all doctors available in a given town. when the user clicks on a doctors name, i just wanted to display the doctors town/county from where his/her office is located. after sometime, i think i just will kepp that information seperate. Max M. wrote: > > basically my > > > > @profile = Profiles.get\_details > > > > where get\_details returns hash of all columns for the profile from the > > Profiles table > > Out of interest - why are you doing this instead of using the fields > provided by ActiveRecord? The idea behind AR is that you can do > Profiles.find(:all) and then for each profile use profile.name or even > traverse relationships like profile.town.name. > > Cheers, > Max ---
**Author:** ![koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/4bbf92/32.png) [@koloa](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/koloa)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 4:35am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/can-i-translate-what-name-id-from-a-belongs-to-relationship/66530/8 "2006-08-28T04:35:48Z")
You can achieve this as well by passing a :select parameter to the find method of AR: Doctor.find(:all, :select=\>“doctors.name, addresses.city, addresses.state”, :include=\>‘address’) Doesn’t break your domain model this way. Cheers, Max