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**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 28, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818 "2007-09-28T19:47:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@predhme](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/predhme)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 7:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818/1 "2007-09-28T19:47:26Z")
hey guys,
I’ve searched around and haven’t been able to turn up much. Here is
the gist of what I need to accomplish. I need to be able to pass a
view generated array to a controller for processing. Basically a
varying amount of ids… sometimes 1 sometimes 10.
Has anyone every done something similar? I will be glad to divulge my
details if this is to vague.
Thanks,
Ken
---
**Author:**  [@predhme](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/predhme)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 8:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818/2 "2007-09-28T20:18:32Z")
You name the elements with []'s like this:
\<%= check\_box\_tag “colors[red]”, 1, false, :id =\> ‘colors\_red’ -%\>
\<%= check\_box\_tag “colors[blue]”, 1, false, :id =\> ‘colors\_blue’ -%\>
\<%= check\_box\_tag “colors[green]”, 1, false, :id =\> ‘colors\_green’ -%\>
Then in your controller, checked boxes will be available as:
params[:colors][:red], parmas[:colors][:blue], etc
predhme wrote:
> Thanks,
>
> Ken
>
> >
–
Sincerely,
William P.
---
**Author:**  [@predhme](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/predhme)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818/3 "2007-09-28T21:08:31Z")
If you want to do it the way I showed, you need to use text\_field\_tag
not text\_field. text\_field and the other \_field helpers are designed to
be used with a specific object where there \_tag brothers are designed to
generate tags not based on a specific object.
predhme wrote:
> >
–
Sincerely,
William P.
---
**Author:**  [@predhme](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/predhme)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 9:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818/4 "2007-09-28T21:20:16Z")
Interesting. I will have to play around with that. Thanks much.
---
**Author:**  [@predhme](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/predhme)\
**Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 9:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818/5 "2007-09-28T21:03:50Z")
thanks, your response helped…
basically i used a
\<%= text\_field “item” “first\_item” %\>
\<%= text\_field “item” “second\_item” %\>
for whatever reason it wouldn’t allow me to do a item[first] for the
name as you suggested. it claimed that @item[] cannot be used for an
instance variable name. but i have it working now. thanks again.
---
**Author:**  [@predhme](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/predhme)\
**Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 3:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/html-forms-arrays-and-controllers/115818/6 "2007-09-29T03:54:07Z")
predhme wrote:
> hey guys,
>
> I’ve searched around and haven’t been able to turn up much. Here is
> the gist of what I need to accomplish. I need to be able to pass a
> view generated array to a controller for processing. Basically a
> varying amount of ids… sometimes 1 sometimes 10.
>
> Has anyone every done something similar? I will be glad to divulge my
> details if this is to vague.
The :index option for form helpers might be useful.
> **[ActionView::Helpers::FormHelper](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormHelper.html)**
>
> Form helpers are designed to make working with resources much easier compared to using vanilla HTML.
–
Josh S.
[http://blog.hasmanythrough.com](http://blog.hasmanythrough.com)