# Question: Select list and default options

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 4, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489 "2006-09-04T16:17:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\
**Post date:** [September 4, 2006, 4:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489/1 "2006-09-04T16:17:28Z")

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I know I’ve seen the answer for this somewhere and now when needed I  
can’t find it.  
If I have a select list from a table but i want an option like “please  
select” as the default option to come up how would I add that in ?

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**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 12:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489/2 "2006-09-05T00:50:33Z")

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bump …anyone know the answer ?

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**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 1:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489/3 "2006-09-05T01:12:35Z")

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Please Select 1 2 ...

Please remember in the future that this list is for questions specific  
to  
Rails, not HTML.

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**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 1:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489/4 "2006-09-05T01:26:38Z")

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It is Rails related.  
Currently I have collection\_select(:table, method, :id :name)  
Within this I wanted to know if there was a specific way to add an  
option in addition to what I’m pulling out of the database.

Stuart

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 1:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489/5 "2006-09-05T13:32:06Z")

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I am not sure if this answers your question but at:

> **[ActionView::Helpers::FormOptionsHelper](https://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActionView/Helpers/FormOptionsHelper.html#M000404)**
>
> Provides a number of methods for turning different kinds of containers into a set of option tags.

For “options\_for\_select” and “collection\_select” I found options  
“:include\_blank” and “:selected”.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/z/e99b99/32.png) [@zanoni](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/zanoni)\
**Post date:** [September 5, 2006, 8:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/question-select-list-and-default-options/67489/6 "2006-09-05T20:40:18Z")

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On 9/4/06, Dark A. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> I know I’ve seen the answer for this somewhere and now  
> when needed I can’t find it. If I have a select list  
> from a table but i want an option like “please select”  
> as the default option to come up how would I add that  
> in ?

Perhaps you are referring to AWDWR page 105?

\<%=  
options = [[“Select a payment option:”, “”]] + Order::PAYMENT\_TYPES  
select(“order”, “pay\_type”, options)  
%\>

- Mark.