# Using data from a query fired in rails

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-data-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104856>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 23, 2007, 8:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-data-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104856 "2007-05-23T08:31:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![athind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@athind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/athind)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 8:31am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-data-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104856/1 "2007-05-23T08:31:13Z")

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Hello,

I have a query that returns a single number that I want to use further  
in my program.

Could you please let me know how I could access the data inside the  
object returned by the query.

I invoke it as:

numscens = Progressions.find\_by\_sql("select numscenarios from  
progressions where id = #{params[:progressionid]}

The data in numscens that I get is \>\> numscenarios.to\_xml:

\<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?\> 2 

I want to access the number in the numscenarios tag.

Apologies for the novice question.

Many Thanks,  
Aman

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![athind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/8edcca/32.png) [@athind](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/athind)\
**Post date:** [May 23, 2007, 9:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/using-data-from-a-query-fired-in-rails/104856/2 "2007-05-23T09:55:04Z")

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What is numscenarios? if it is a column name then you should be able to  
access it like any active record find. NOTE: you can’t update unless you  
have the id field.