# Problem with checkboxes updating table

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-checkboxes-updating-table/225987>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [January 9, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-checkboxes-updating-table/225987 "2008-01-09T23:15:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![weloki](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@weloki](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/weloki)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2008, 11:15pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-checkboxes-updating-table/225987/1 "2008-01-09T23:15:34Z")

</div>

I’m having issues getting checkboxes to update a cross-reference table  
correctly. I keep seeing entries in the locations\_users table, for  
location\_id and user\_id, “11” and “2”, respectively. The user id is  
fine, but there is no such location with id 11. There are only 5  
locations and their ids go from 1-5! I can’t seem to find where the 11  
is coming from.

This is in the view:  
\<% Location.find(:all).each do |location| %\>  
\<input type=“checkbox”  
name=“user[locations\_ids][]”  
value="\<%= location.id %\>"  
\<% if @user.locations.include?(location) %\> checked=“checked”  
\<% end %\> /\>  
\<%= location.name %\>  
\<% end %\>  
This is in the controller:

[code=]def edit  
@user = User.find(params[:id])  
@locations = Location.find(:all)  
@locationsusers = LocationsUser.new  
end

def update  
@user = User.find(params[:id])  
@locations = Location.find(:all)  
@locations.each do |location|  
@locationsids = location.id  
end  
@locationsusers = LocationsUser.new(params[:locations\_users])  
@locationsusers.user\_id = @user.id  
@locationsusers.location\_id = @locationsids.id  
if @locationsusers.update\_attributes(params[:locations\_users])  
flash[:notice] = ‘User was successfully updated.’  
redirect\_to :action =\> ‘list’  
else  
render :action =\> ‘edit’  
end  
end  
Have a look at the relevant parts of the output and notice how the  
line…

“SELECT \* FROM locations INNER JOIN locations\_users ON locations.id =  
locations\_users.location\_id WHERE (locations\_users.user\_id = 2 )”

is not repeated in the ‘update’ action:

Processing UserController#edit  
Parameters: {“action”=\>“edit”, “id”=\>“2”, “controller”=\>“user”}  
User Columns (0.001195) SHOW FIELDS FROM users  
User Load (0.000083) SELECT \* FROM users WHERE (users.`id` = 2)  
LocationsUser Columns (0.000656) SHOW FIELDS FROM locations\_users  
Location Load (0.000129) SELECT \* FROM locations  
Rendering within layouts/user  
Rendering user/edit  
Location Load (0.000114) SELECT \* FROM locations  
Location Columns (0.000900) SHOW FIELDS FROM locations  
Join Table Columns (0.000558) SHOW FIELDS FROM locations\_users  
Location Load (0.000327) SELECT \* FROM locations INNER JOIN  
locations\_users ON locations.id = locations\_users.location\_id WHERE  
(locations\_users.user\_id = 2 )

Processing UserController#update  
Parameters: {“user”=\>{“locations\_ids”=\>[“1”, “3”]}, “commit”=\>“Save  
Data”, “action”=\>“updateLocation”, “id”=\>“2”, “controller”=\>“user”}  
User Columns (0.001231) SHOW FIELDS FROM users  
User Load (0.000087) SELECT \* FROM users WHERE (users.`id` = 2)  
Location Load (0.000133) SELECT \* FROM locations  
Location Columns (0.000906) SHOW FIELDS FROM locations  
LocationsUser Columns (0.000687) SHOW FIELDS FROM locations\_users  
SQL (0.000068) BEGIN  
SQL (0.000209) INSERT INTO locations\_users (`location_id`, `user_id`)  
VALUES(11, 2)  
SQL (0.004631) COMMIT