# Running through results of find() **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 14, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829 "2006-04-14T16:33:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 4:33pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/1 "2006-04-14T16:33:33Z")
Hi, I’ve got a question about the find() method in RoR This is my code: actions=Action.find(:all, :conditions =\> “ActivityID=‘actid’”) This should return a list, array, hash, … ? of Actions. What type of data does find() return? And how do I run through it? I would like to show Action.ActionCode for every action in actions. I tried: for action in actions output += action.ActionCode end Didn’t work. Thanks, Steven. ---
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 4:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/2 "2006-04-14T16:37:52Z")
Um, this seems to be a question of understanding Ruby the programming language rather than understanding Rails the framework. #find returns an Array object. There are many ways to iterate through an array, you should check the Ruby documentation here: [http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/](http://www.ruby-doc.org/core/) Steven De Ryck wrote: > I would like to show Action.ActionCode for every action in actions. > Steven. – Sau S. [http://blog.saush.com](http://blog.saush.com) [http://read.saush.com](http://read.saush.com) [http://jaccal.sourceforge.net](http://jaccal.sourceforge.net) ---
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 11:18pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/3 "2006-04-14T23:18:01Z")
On Apr 14, 2006, at 11:51 AM, Chris T wrote: > It returns an array of hashes. Try going into the console (ruby > script/console) and doing your No, it’ll return an array of Action objects. Assuming Action is an ActiveRecord subclass, it’s definitely NOT a hash. – – Tom M. ---
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 12:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/4 "2006-04-15T00:31:39Z")
My bad. That’s what happens when a noob tries to help another noob ☹ Thanks for clarifying. ---
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 14, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/5 "2006-04-14T20:55:55Z")
It returns an array of hashes. Try going into the console (ruby script/console) and doing your actions=Action.find(:all…) and it’ll echo the resulting array. By the way, action.ActionCode doesn’t look right – attributes are normally lower case. Hope this helps ---
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/6 "2006-04-15T01:14:29Z")
No problem, just trying to be helpful. Let me guess: You (like I) came from Perl? 🙂 There are _no_ built in types in Ruby, everything is an object. The question is, what type of object is it? I only point this out because I see a lot of new users suggesting that most output from .inspect is displaying hashes, when they’re really looking at objects that are NOT hashes. I’ve learned a lot by helping others on the list, and occasionally being wrong and getting corrected, so keep up the good work! – -- Tom M. ---
**Author:** ![S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@S-redyck](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/S-redyck)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2006, 9:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/running-through-results-of-find/57829/7 "2006-04-15T09:33:24Z")
No, PHP. About 25% through the Pickaxe at the moment (and would recommend to all noobs that they take the time to read it – rails starts to make much more sense). Taking a bit of time for the whole OO thing to sink in, but actually I’m lovin it.