# Generate serialized attribute in fixture

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generate-serialized-attribute-in-fixture/148107>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 9, 2008, 12:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generate-serialized-attribute-in-fixture/148107 "2008-09-09T12:11:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kadoudal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kadoudal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kadoudal)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 12:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generate-serialized-attribute-in-fixture/148107/1 "2008-09-09T12:11:01Z")

</div>

Is there anyway to generate a serialized attribute like this one  
inside the fixture :

knowledge: “— \n- 1\n- 3\n- 5\n- 7\n”

I tried  
knowledge: \<%= [1, 3, 5, 7].to\_yaml %\>

doesn’t not work… so I do it using irb, then copy/paste…

thanks

erwin

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kadoudal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kadoudal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kadoudal)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 12:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generate-serialized-attribute-in-fixture/148107/2 "2008-09-09T12:19:14Z")

</div>

Does YAML::dump([1,3,5,7]) work ? You will need to require ‘yaml’ for  
it.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kadoudal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/f0a364/32.png) [@kadoudal](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/kadoudal)\
**Post date:** [September 9, 2008, 12:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/generate-serialized-attribute-in-fixture/148107/3 "2008-09-09T12:26:16Z")

</div>

On 9 Sep 2008, at 11:10, Erwin wrote:

> Is there anyway to generate a serialized attribute like this one  
> inside the fixture :
> 
> knowledge: “— \n- 1\n- 3\n- 5\n- 7\n”
> 
> I tried  
> knowledge: \<%= [1, 3, 5, 7].to\_yaml %\>

The difference between these two is that the second is actually sticking

knowledge:—

- 1
- 3
- 5
- 7

In your fixture which is not what you want.

knowledge: \<%= [1, 3, 5, 7].to\_yaml.inspect %\>

Looks like it might do what you want.