# Rails view template for a gallery

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [August 2, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940 "2006-08-02T00:17:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephen_OSD)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940/1 "2006-08-02T00:17:00Z")

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I am totally new to rails, so sorry for the trivial question!

I have an object, gallery, that contains a list of images. I want to  
display these images in a table with 4 columns and as many rows as it  
takes, closing the final table row at the end.

What is the best way todo this?

I can do it (mostly, the final table row is still left open) using the  
following template, but it seems a bit hackish in places:

# \<%= @gallery.name -%\>
 \<% i = 1 for img in @gallery.images -%\> \<%= if i == 1 || (i-1)%4 == 0 "" else "" end -%\> \<%= "" if i%4 == 0 -%\> \<%= i += 1 "" -%\> \<% end -%\> 

| ![]() |

Is there a better way?

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**Author:** ![stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephen_OSD)\
**Post date:** [August 2, 2006, 1:21am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940/2 "2006-08-02T01:21:59Z")

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stephen O’D wrote:

> ```
> else
> 
> ```
> 
> Is there a better way?

Generally, you’ll want to ask Rails-specific questions on the Rails  
mailing list, as this is the Ruby mailing list.

[http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails)

-Justin

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**Author:** ![stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephen_OSD)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940/3 "2006-08-03T12:03:46Z")

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How about using Enumerator#each\_slice (or Rails’ #in\_groups\_of):

# \<%= @gallery.name -%\>
 \<% @gallery.each\_slice(4) do |slice| %\> \<% slice.each do |image| %\> \<% end %\> \<% end %\> 

| \<%= image\_tag(image) %\> |

– Brian

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**Author:** ![stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephen_OSD)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940/4 "2006-08-03T12:03:57Z")

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I was writing to my local Ruby user group mailing list about it and it  
dawned on me: I should just partition it! Brian beat me too it, though  
(good thinking). I didn’t find documentation on Enumerable#each\_slice,  
but I did find Array#slice which should do the same thing (though, I  
just noticed the documentation was for 1.6, so that’s probably my  
problem).

But, in retrospect, I’d do what Brian did: it’s short, readable, and  
maybe faster? (I’d have to benchmark it.)

M.T.

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**Author:** ![stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephen_OSD)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 12:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940/5 "2006-08-03T12:03:34Z")

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I’ll be honest, I think this is Ruby-centric enough because it really  
comes down to basic looping and Erb, so I’ll take a stab at it!

# \<%= @gallery.name -%\>
 \<% ((@gallery.length / 4) + (((@gallery.length % 4) \> 0) ? 1 : 0)).downto(1) do %\> \<% 4.downto(1) do %\> \<% end %\> \<% end %\> 

| ![]() |

That basically figures out how many rows (based on the length divided  
by 4, plus 1 if there were any leftovers) and then loops through them.  
Then, for each row, we loop four times and for each iteration, we  
shift off the front element to go from beginning to end (instead of  
pop, which will pull if off the end).

I like this solution a bit better because it uses a very heirarchical  
structure much like the way the data will be. Plus, I don’t have to  
embed any HTML into Erb!

Hope this helps,

M.T.

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**Author:** ![stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@stephen\_OSD](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/stephen_OSD)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2006, 12:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-view-template-for-a-gallery/100940/6 "2006-08-03T12:26:49Z")

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Matt T. wrote:

> M.T.  
> Guys thats great - I new there had to be a tidier way!

Can I also say thats about the most helpful response I have ever had on  
usenet after posting in the wrong group!

> From now on I put rails questions in the rails group.

Cheers,

Stephen.