# This feels ugly

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/this-feels-ugly/54268>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [February 28, 2006, 7:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/this-feels-ugly/54268 "2006-02-28T07:47:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![travis\_laduke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@travis\_laduke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/travis_laduke)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 7:47am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/this-feels-ugly/54268/1 "2006-02-28T07:47:41Z")

</div>

i better explain a little to get started.  
in my form for creating a Person, there’s a Company field. People  
belong to companies and companies have many people.

in my person form i have:  
\<%= text\_field ‘person’, ‘Company’ %\>

in my controller i have  
def create  
params[‘person’][‘Company’] = Company.find\_by\_name(params[‘person’]  
[‘Company’])  
@person = Person.new(params[:person])  
…  
end

this seems ugly to me and makes me feel like this is not the best way.  
I’m doing this because Person.new expects Company to be a Company  
object not a string. params[‘person’][‘Company’] comes in from the  
form as “cutco” or “edgeslice” or whatever.

Anyway, i’m using a text field instead of a select box, because  
select boxes with more that like 3 items are annoying to use. I’m  
going to autocomplete the company text field.

how do people usually create new objects (and specify who they  
belong\_to) from the child’s (in this case Person) view/controller?

travis

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![travis\_laduke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@travis\_laduke](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/travis_laduke)\
**Post date:** [February 28, 2006, 7:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/this-feels-ugly/54268/2 "2006-02-28T07:50:49Z")

</div>

oops, wrong list. so sorry.