# Display optional db data **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 14, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959 "2010-04-14T23:13:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/1 "2010-04-14T23:13:50Z")
ive got a few models that may or may not have some data: urls / phone numbers / dates / times / etc whats the best way to test and format this data for displaying on a webpage? the way im thinking of doing it would be a few lines of code to: - test if not null - format properly - display in proper div / ul container and then do that for each thing is there a cleaner way to do this? ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/2 "2010-04-15T20:09:18Z")
could someone perhaps advise on how to move some of this logic from view to model? like ‘get\_price\_info’ and it returns the properly formatted string or nothing? or should these tests be performed in the view? ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/3 "2010-04-15T20:18:40Z")
On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 11:05 AM, dan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > could someone perhaps advise on how to move some of this logic from > view to model? > like ‘get\_price\_info’ and it returns the properly formatted string or > nothing? > or should these tests be performed in the view? I’m not sure what you’re looking for here; if you have a view with e.g. \<%= @thing.foo %\> and this particular “foo” is nil, nothing will display, otherwise you get the value of “foo”. If that’s not the behavior you want, please describe in more detail. – Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid twitter: @hassan ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/4 "2010-04-15T20:37:24Z")
if thing.foo is a date, price, url or something else that requires formatting, it requires more than =thing.foo and since you cant format nil, a test needs to be performed before trying to format said data my views are getting littered with these tests and formats, sometimes there nested: is there price data? is there an advance purchase price? is there an advance purchase expiry date? its getting kinda ugly in my view whats the best way to handle this? ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/5 "2010-04-15T21:01:24Z")
On Thu, Apr 15, 2010 at 11:36 AM, dan [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > if thing.foo is a date, price, url or something else that requires > formatting, it requires more than =thing.foo > and since you cant format nil, a test needs to be performed before > trying to format said data > my views are getting littered with these tests and formats, sometimes > there nested: Some possible approaches: 1. make the default in the database some value other than null. 2. \<%= @thing.foo.format rescue nil %\> 3. \<%= @thing.foo.nil? ? " N/A " : @thing.foo.format %\> I’m sure someone will suggest others, but HTH 🙂 – Hassan S. ------------------------ removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid twitter: @hassan ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/6 "2010-04-15T21:20:09Z")
The logic for this probably belong in view helpers and not in the model since its really about how the data is displayed and not about how the data behaves. ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:32am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/7 "2010-04-16T10:32:19Z")
It would be easier if you post the actual view code, and then somebody can show you how you might refactor it by moving logic into helpers ---
**Author:** ![dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/e5b9ba/32.png) [@dkam](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dkam)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2010, 10:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/display-optional-db-data/186959/8 "2010-04-15T22:14:00Z")
anyone have a good example of how best to move this logic to a helper?