# Is passing model objects to a view ok (i.e. best practice)?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-passing-model-objects-to-a-view-ok-i-e-best-practice/154827>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [December 4, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-passing-model-objects-to-a-view-ok-i-e-best-practice/154827 "2008-12-04T08:36:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 8:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-passing-model-objects-to-a-view-ok-i-e-best-practice/154827/1 "2008-12-04T08:36:04Z")

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Hi,

A Rails Best Practice question:

Question - Is passing model objects (or a collection of model object)  
from the controller to a view best practice is rails? i.e. or is one  
supposed to create the most minimal set of data all ready to display  
in the form of array/hashes and pass this to a view? (the latter  
approach adds a bit more plumbing work)

Thanks

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**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 11:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-passing-model-objects-to-a-view-ok-i-e-best-practice/154827/2 "2008-12-04T11:01:01Z")

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Hmm, not sure if I understand that right.  
Assume:

@articles = Article.find(:all)

So I want to display those articles. (And I would  
just use this @articles in the views)  
Don’t see, how I could “split” that an further.  
Sure, I could create and array and assign every article to  
it. Would be nonsense I think.

Or say, I want to display only the article names.  
Then I could collect those into an array. That would  
make slightly more sense, but I wouldn’t do it anyway.  
Because:

- One more step, extra work without any extra use
- Very likely, that soon enough I want to display more data.
- Would make the code difficult to read.
- Nobody does it that way as far as I know. Never seen a piece  
of code in any tutorial or oss project doing it.

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**Author:** ![greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/71c47a/32.png) [@greg](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/greg)\
**Post date:** [December 4, 2008, 12:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/is-passing-model-objects-to-a-view-ok-i-e-best-practice/154827/3 "2008-12-04T12:52:45Z")

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ok - yes that makes sense to me for Rails too (just checking, as I’ve  
had a Java background)