how to convert array output to normal string in ruby on rails application

Question

I am implementing tag functionality and an article may have one to many tags. I am able to get tag values from db in this format

["social network", "professional"]

I want output in this format

"social network professional"

I want to convert an array into a string without ,. Below is a code snippet which takes out values from db as an array.

<%= article.tags.collect(&:name) %>

How can I convert this output into string value(s) with out any comma?

yossarian · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-13 13:05:43Z

up vote 1 down vote accepted

Did you look at pluck? This if very useful for if you want just one record from the db (in your case 'name'). You could use that to do this:

a = article.tags.pluck(:name)

To then output your article names separated by spaces do this:

a.join(" ")

For completeness sake, you can chain these methods (like you said in the comment below) like this:

article.tags.pluck(:name).join(" ")

edited Apr 13 at 13:05

answered Apr 13 at 12:51

yossarian
887317

	hi yossarian thanks. will it work in case of fetching multiple values from db. – VSiingh Apr 13 at 12:55
	Yes, for multiple values this works. `pluck` however only retrieves ONE database field. If you need more use `collect` like you did. (or `select`) – yossarian Apr 13 at 12:56
	If this answered your question, please accept so future readers know it did – yossarian Apr 13 at 13:01
	It worked for me like <%= article.tags.pluck(:name).join(" ") %>. Thanks yossarian. – VSiingh Apr 13 at 13:03
	hi yossarian, even <%= article.tags.collect(&:name).join(" ") works fine. – VSiingh Apr 13 at 13:14

VSiingh · Answer 2 · 2013-04-13 13:17:04Z

up vote 0 down vote

I got two solutions which are below:

<%= article.tags.collect(&:name).join(" ")%>
<%= article.tags.pluck(:name).join(" ") %> - by yossarian.

answered Apr 13 at 13:17

community wiki

VSiingh

2 Answers