# Rails way to strip empty child objects from array? **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 4, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453 "2007-02-04T20:48:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/poipu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 8:48pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453/1 "2007-02-04T20:48:56Z")
Hi, I have a object with children. some of these children are empty…so when i paginate them, i get blanks. is there a way to strip out the empty children? these are my debug. thanks. - !ruby/object:Scategory attributes: name: bbq id: “2” mcategory\_id: “2” howtos: [] - !ruby/object:Scategory attributes: name: baking id: “3” mcategory\_id: “2” howtos: ---
**Author:** ![poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/poipu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 9:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453/2 "2007-02-04T21:01:56Z")
it seems basically i need to run a compact on the children, but how to use compact on children? ---
**Author:** ![poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/poipu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 9:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453/3 "2007-02-04T21:04:15Z")
poipu wrote: > I have a object with children. some of these children are empty…so > when i paginate them, i get blanks. is there a way to strip out the > empty children? these are my debug. thanks. I have been having so much fun with Array#reject recently… 😉 – Phlip [Redirecting...](http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!! ---
**Author:** ![poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/poipu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 9:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453/4 "2007-02-04T21:29:18Z")
poipu wrote: > it seems basically i need to run a compact on the children, but how to > use compact on children? Put them into an Array? If they are in a Model, such as a product of has\_many, they likely are already in an Array. Post some Ruby code (not YAML!). – Phlip [Redirecting...](http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!! ---
**Author:** ![poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/poipu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 11:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453/5 "2007-02-04T23:57:30Z")
poipu wrote: > @scats = Scategory.find(:all, :conditions =\> [“mcategory\_id = ?”, > params[:id]], :include =\> :howtos) > > howtos are the children…scategory has many howtos… > > now scats is an array where the content is an array of howtos contents? p scats.first p scats.first.howtos p scats.first.howtos.first ## Next question: What is an “empty” howto? Can you add a :condition or similar to the has\_many to exclude them at the database level? Or - even better not store them? – Phlip [Redirecting...](http://www.greencheese.us/ZeekLand) ← NOT a blog!!! ---
**Author:** ![poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/9dc877/32.png) [@poipu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/poipu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2007, 9:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-way-to-strip-empty-child-objects-from-array/84453/6 "2007-02-04T21:46:41Z")
yes, it is a model. but im still trying to grasp the concept… i am calling this… @scats = Scategory.find(:all, :conditions =\> [“mcategory\_id = ?”, params[:id]], :include =\> :howtos) howtos are the children…scategory has many howtos… now scats is an array where the content is an array of howtos contents?