# Simple Search **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 10, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783 "2006-04-10T01:01:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 1:01am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/1 "2006-04-10T01:01:00Z")
I’m trying to implement a search system and I’m lost as to how to go about it. I’m searching the model “category”, and I’m searching the “name” field. From there I’ll use @categories.listings to display. But that’s the easy part. I assume I need to use a LIKE command in MySQL, but I don’t know how to do that from Rails. If anyone can give me any ideas on where to look or how to get started I’ll greatly appreciate it! Thanks, Adam ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 1:25am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/2 "2006-04-10T01:25:22Z")
Adam, I am not sure how sophisticated you want your search to be, but a simple way to do it would be to put this in the view corresponding to your category controller: \<%= start\_form\_tag :action =\> ‘find\_category\_by\_name’ %\> ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/3 "2006-04-10T01:33:03Z")
Ooops…accidently hit ‘Enter’ and posted… to continue… \<%= start\_form\_tag :action =\> ‘find\_category\_by\_name’ %\> Find Category: \<%= submit\_tag ‘Search’ %\> \<%= end\_form\_tag %\> In your controller: def find\_category\_by\_name @categories = Category.find(:all, :conditions =\> [‘name = ?’, params[:find\_category]] redirect\_to :action =\> ‘list\_categories’ def find\_categories end You would then create a view for the ‘find\_categories’ action that listed your categories. Of course, you could use a drop-down box that listed all of your category names for the search field. To get even more fun out of it, try the Auto-Complete field magic from [http://script.aculo.us/](http://script.aculo.us/) Good luck… ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/4 "2006-04-10T01:34:37Z")
Wow…long night I guess…the last method should read: def list\_categories end NOT def find\_categories… Even screwed up my own example code. Have a nice day! -David ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/5 "2006-04-10T01:39:04Z")
This is so easy even a total noob like me can answer it 🙂 What you are looking for is the ActiveRecord find() method. Something like: @categories = Category.find(:all, :conditions =\> [“name = ?”, some\_variable]) Here’s the syntax: [http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Base.html#M000344](http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Base.html#M000344) ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 2:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/6 "2006-04-10T02:54:56Z")
Hello Adam, > Those methods are a good start, but there’s a problem. 🙂 I have a lot > of categories, which is why I want a search for them. I need the search > to match similar names as well as exact; so searching for “insurance” > finds “investment and insurance.” > > That’s why I mentioned I thought it would involve MySQLs “LIKE” > command. I realize I could write a find\_by\_sql instruction that would > probably work, but if there’s a cleaner more Rails-y way to do it I’d like > to try that. Try : @categories = Category.find :all, :conditions =\> [‘name LIKE ?’, “%#{params[:find\_category]}%” ] Good night, ``` -- Jean-François. ``` ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/7 "2006-04-10T19:32:26Z")
The link I posted ([http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Base.html](http://ar.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveRecord/Base.html)) explained this: “Conditions can either be specified as a string or an array representing the WHERE-part of an SQL statement.” Sorry if you missed that bit–should have pointed it out. ---
**Author:** ![adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@adambeazley](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/adambeazley)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2006, 2:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/simple-search/93783/8 "2006-04-10T02:42:22Z")
Those methods are a good start, but there’s a problem. 🙂 I have a lot of categories, which is why I want a search for them. I need the search to match similar names as well as exact; so searching for “insurance” finds “investment and insurance.” That’s why I mentioned I thought it would involve MySQLs “LIKE” command. I realize I could write a find\_by\_sql instruction that would probably work, but if there’s a cleaner more Rails-y way to do it I’d like to try that. -Adam