# Problem with \<hr\> placement in scaffold code

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [July 1, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284 "2007-07-01T18:18:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 6:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/1 "2007-07-01T18:18:44Z")

</div>

I’m customizing my scaffold on a simple app by adding a little  
formatting. However, the

* * *
 that I put inside the table row that  
displays the row gets moved outside the table and I can’t figure out  
why.
# Here’s the scaffold code with the * * * marked:
\<% counter = 0 %\> \<% for idea in @ideas %\> \<% counter = counter + 1 %\> \<%= "
* * *
" %\> \<=================== \<% end %\>

| Description | Date Entered | Source | Tags |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| \<%= idea.send("description")[0,145]%\> \<% if idea.description.length \> 145 %\> ... \<% end %\> | \<%= idea.send("date\_entered") %\> | \<%= idea.send("source") %\> | \<%= idea.tag\_names.join(', ') %\> | \<%= link\_to 'Show', :action =\> 'show', :id =\> idea %\> | \<%= link\_to 'Edit', :action =\> 'edit', :id =\> idea %\> | \<%= link\_to 'Destroy', { :action =\> 'destroy', :id =\> idea }, :confirm =\> 'Are you sure?', :method =\> :post %\> |

======================== And here's the result - notice that all the 
* * *
 elements have been moved completely outside the table??? ========================
# Listing ideas

* * *
 \<======================
* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

* * *

| Description | Date Entered | Source | Tags |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| ========================

It’s gotta be something simple I’m overlooking, but I can’t seem to  
find the problem.

thanks…jon

 |

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/2 "2007-07-01T18:52:50Z")

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Hi Jon,

JSeidel wrote:

> I’m customizing my scaffold on a simple app by adding a little  
> formatting. However, the
> 
> * * *
> that I put inside the table row that  
> displays the row gets moved outside the table and I can’t figure out  
> why.
> 
> Here’s the scaffold code with the
> 
> * * *
> marked:  
>   
> \<%= “\<tr id=“row-#{counter}”\>
> * * *
> ” %\>

I think Rails is having a problem matching your quotes. You’re wanting  
nested, and it’s seeing a series. It looks like you’ve tried to escape  
the  
quotes but I don’t think that’ll work here. Try…  
\<%= %Q{

* * *
} %\>

hth,  
Bill

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 7:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/3 "2007-07-01T19:08:52Z")

</div>

# Actually, Bill, I have exactly the same problem when I simplify the code to:

# * * *

…jon

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 7:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/4 "2007-07-01T19:24:54Z")

</div>

# My bad! I had to specify this:

# * * *

to get the

* * *
 to cover the entire table.

…jon

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/5 "2007-07-01T21:11:06Z")

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On Jul 1, 2007, at 12:23 , JSeidel wrote:

> # My bad! I had to specify this:
> 
> * * *
> ===== to get the 
> * * *
> to cover the entire table.

Note that if you’re using XHTML,

* * *
 is invalid. Use 
* * *
 instead.

I’m curious why you’re using

* * *
 here rather than just using CSS to  
style your , , and 

> > ```
> > <td><%= idea.send("description")[0,145]%>
> > <% if idea.description.length > 145 %>
> > ...
> > <% end %>
> > </td>
> > 
> > ```

You can use the truncate() helper to handle shortening  
idea.description rather than handling it yourself:

It’s also a good idea to use the h() helper to html-escape your strings.

> > ```
> > <td><%= idea.send("date_entered") %></td>
> > <td><%= idea.send("source") %></td>
> > 
> > ```

I’m not quite sure why you’re using #send here rather than just

```
 <td><%= h idea.date_entered %></td>
 <td><%= h idea.source %></td>

```

Note, I’ve again used the h() helper method.

Putting these all together, you get (untested):

| elements? 
* * *
 is pretty much just  
a style element (i.e., it doesn’t convey meaning), and it’s generally  
better to separate your content (the HTML) from presentation (the CSS).

Here are some other hints you might consider:

> On Jul 1, 9:18 am, JSeidel [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:
> 
> > \<% counter = counter + 1 %\>

\<% counter += 1 %\>

(And if you’re immediately incrementing your counter, you might as  
well initialize it to what you want and increment at the bottom of  
the loop rather than the top.)

> > ```
> > <%= "<tr id=\"row-#{counter}\"><hr>" %>       
> > 
> > ```
> > 
> > \<===================

As a matter of style, I find it much harder to read tags which are  
quoted. The idea of using an erb template is that you can use your  
tags as tags rather than building up and printing strings, e.g.,

 |
| \<%= h truncate(idea.description, 145) %\> |

\<% counter = 1 %\> \<% for idea in @ideas %\> \<% counter += 1 %\> \<% end %\>

| Description | Date Entered | Source | Tags | |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| \<%= h truncate(idea.description, 145) %\> | \<%= h idea.date\_entered %\> | \<%= h idea.source %\> | \<%= h idea.tag\_names.join(', ') %\> | \<%= link\_to 'Show', :action =\> 'show', :id =\> idea %\> | \<%= link\_to 'Edit', :action =\> 'edit', :id =\> idea %\> | \<%= link\_to 'Destroy', { :action =\> 'destroy', :id =\> idea }, :confirm =\> 'Are you sure?', :method =\> :post %\> |

Personally, I think that’s a little easier to read, and perhaps more  
idiomatic.

Hope this helps.

Michael G.  
grzm seespotcode net

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 2, 2007, 1:51am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/6 "2007-07-02T01:51:32Z")

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On Jul 1, 2007, at 16:40 , Jon Seidel CMC wrote:

> Michael… Thank you very much; excellent comments - I will definitely  
> incorporate them.

I’m glad you found them helpful. I always wonder whether or not to  
comment on issues I see in code other than what the poster is  
directly asking about.

> Minor point: coming from Perl, I was looking for the counter++  
> syntax and,  
> failing to find that, went completely the other way forgetting the  
> (op)= in  
> my flustered state 🙂

I hear you 🙂 My language route has been PHP to Perl to Ruby and I’m  
currently studying C 🙂 While there are usually many different ways  
to accomplish a given task, learning the idioms of a particular  
language is interesting.

Michael G.  
grzm seespotcode net

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/b19c9b/32.png) [@jseidel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jseidel)\
**Post date:** [July 1, 2007, 11:42pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-with-hr-placement-in-scaffold-code/108284/7 "2007-07-01T23:42:21Z")

</div>

Michael… Thank you very much; excellent comments - I will definitely  
incorporate them.

Regarding use of

* * *
 versus CSS - I’m building this up by stages and  
adding the hr is much easier (ignoring my errors) than id’ing the  
elements  
and CSS’ing them, IMO. Were I to upgrade the display more fully, then I  
would definitely go CSS (which I do use for much of my styling).

Minor point: coming from Perl, I was looking for the counter++ syntax  
and,  
failing to find that, went completely the other way forgetting the (op)=  
in  
my flustered state 🙂

Cheers; and thanks again.

…jon

–