Select() can't do float or anything other than a string?

Rails
1

I have a database field that is a float type. If I do form_for and then
f.select :the_field it will not select the db value unless I make it a
string.

I’ve had a hard time with this many times. Is there something I’m
missing here? Shouldn’t it convert it to a string for me and compare the
results?

Thanks for your help.