Form_for select field, concatenating data into the display string

Question

I am trying to use a form_for collection_select to display some select field options of account types.

Its occurred to me that it would be easier for the user if they could see the price of the type in each select option

this is my currently not-working code:

<%= a.collection_select :account_type, AccountType.all, :id, (:name+" - "+number_to_currency(:price)) %>

how can i concatenate the values so that (:name+" - "+number_to_currency(:price)) will actually work and not throw an error?

stackoverflow.com/a/3838694/559119 and stackoverflow.com/a/12909620/559119. — Sun Wang Jun, May 3 '13 at 8:45

anandvc · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-03 12:25:14Z

You can use the :text_method option to set the displayed text in the select dropdown.

In your AccountType model, define a method like this:

  def name_with_price
    "#{name} - $#{price}"
  end

Then, in your view, you can use:

<%= a.collection_select :account_type, nil, AccountType.all, :id, :name_with_price %>

i did see that in the documentation. but thats display logic in a model, which breaks the principles of MVC, right? — Kristian, May 3 '13 at 13:26

1 Answer