# Table with Constants **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [February 17, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/table-with-constants/53930 "2006-02-17T05:11:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rath)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 5:11am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/table-with-constants/53930/1 "2006-02-17T05:11:48Z")
I would like to have a table with some constants to use them later on for a drop down menu. How can this be done? My table looks like ## Table with constants ## id | key | value | type 1 | M | Male | sex … I know it can be done like this \<% select ‘object’, ‘method’, Constants.find(:all, :select =\> [“key, value”], :conditions =\> [‘type = ?’, “sex”]) %\> I prefer to have something in the ConstantsModel to return an array like class Constants \< ActiveRecord::Base def find\_by\_type (type) find(:all, :select =\> [“key, value”], :conditions =\> [‘type = ?’, type]) end end Can anyone help me? ---
**Author:** ![rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rath)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/table-with-constants/53930/2 "2006-02-17T09:31:47Z")
I have a plugin which may be what you’re looking for. The announcement (with a brief intro) is here: [http://www.somethinglearned.com/articles/2005/10/25/announcement-new-](http://www.somethinglearned.com/articles/2005/10/25/announcement-new-) rails-plugin and the subversion URL is: [http://svn.protocool.com/rails/plugins/enumerations\_mixin/trunk](http://svn.protocool.com/rails/plugins/enumerations_mixin/trunk) Regards, Trevor On 16-Feb-06, at 8:11 PM, Rath wrote: > … > def find\_by\_type (type) > Rails mailing list > removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > [http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails](http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails) – Trevor S. [http://somethinglearned.com](http://somethinglearned.com) ---
**Author:** ![rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rath)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 9:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/table-with-constants/53930/3 "2006-02-17T09:37:49Z")
Rath wrote: > Can anyone help me? Prefix the method name with ‘self.’ to make it a class method like find. i.e. def self.find\_by\_type(type) find(:all, …) end -Sam ---
**Author:** ![rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rath)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 10:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/table-with-constants/53930/4 "2006-02-17T10:23:07Z")
Ugh, I put it down to the fact that it’s really late and I’m tired and probably need food. I thought you were asking for a nice way to handle (what you call) constants and it looks more like you just wanted to know how to create a class method. def self.find\_by\_type #body of your method end The ‘self’ makes it a class method so you can call ConstantsModel.find\_by\_type() Sorry for the confusion, I’m going to bed. Trevor ---
**Author:** ![rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/c2a13f/32.png) [@rath](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rath)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2006, 11:03am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/table-with-constants/53930/5 "2006-02-17T11:03:48Z")
Thanks guys… that’s what I needed but I’m still not happy, there must be something easier than that… perhaps something like ConstantsModel.find\_by\_? but I will have to create a method for each “type” of constants… (perhaps it was not the best to call them “constants” because they are not) 🙂 cheers, Rath