# Retrieving text from a query fired in Rails

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/retrieving-text-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104852>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 23, 2007, 7:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/retrieving-text-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104852 "2007-05-23T07:46:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Aman\_Thind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@Aman\_Thind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aman_Thind)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 7:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/retrieving-text-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104852/1 "2007-05-23T07:46:25Z")

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Hello,

I have a query that returns a number and I want to use that number after  
that.

Could you please let me know how to access the data.

I fire the query like:

numscens = Progression.find\_by\_sql(“select numscenarios from  
progressions where id = #{params[:progressionid]}”)

How can I access and use the numscenarios returned by the query that is  
part of my numscens variable now.

If I do a numscens.to\_xml I get:

\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?\> 2 

Still I cannot figure out how to access that number in numscenarios tag.

I want to do if (numscens == 1) do this else that…

Apologies for the novice question.

Many Thanks,  
Aman

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Aman\_Thind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/7ea924/32.png) [@Aman\_Thind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Aman_Thind)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 7:59am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/retrieving-text-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104852/2 "2007-05-23T07:59:11Z")

</div>

Why don’t you just use:

numscens = Progression.find(:first, :condition =\> :id =\> params  
[:progressionid]), or even simpler:  
numscens = Progression.find(params[:progressionid])

I believe, inserting the params directly like that can make you open  
for SQL injection attacks.

And then, to use it from there, just use: numscens.

If you want to make it available to your view, use:  
@numscens = …  
then use \<%= @numscens %\> anywhere in your view