Edit form doesn't return selected value

Question

I have a webform created in Rails that asks if someone has children or not? If I submit the form, it's able to get inserted into the db. When I edit the form, it doesn't show it ask selected.

For example, the field is

<%= f.select :have_children, [ ["Yes", 0"], ["No", 1] ] %>

Whenever I select "No" and then edit the form again, it shows this field as "Yes." In the db, it's saved as value 1. Is it because the form can't associate values 0 or 1 with "Yes" or "No"? Am I missing something in the form?

Answer 1

I'm assuming you're using MySql as your database?

If so, it's because mysql doesn't have a bool type. Instead it uses TINYINT and sets 1 to true and 0 to false.

When you reload the data back into your web-form it should work fine, but I'd advise that you just make yes = 1 and no = 0 - this is the "standard" and going against it for no reason is just going to cause confusion and suffering in future.

Answer 2

Why are you even using a select for this at all? A simple checkbox would suffice.