Rails: How do I save a string representation back into a model?

Question

I have an Employee model that has a SecurityClearanceLevel. When you make a new employee, you're asked to set a SecurityClearanceLevel by choosing from a <select> list. The problem is that when I save the object, it's a string, not a SecurityClearanceLevel, so the save fails.

Where do I take care of this kind of back-and-forth conversion, and what's the best way to do it?

Answer 1

Rails gives you a few variations around doing this. You should be able to do something like this:

<%= collection_select(:employee, :security_clearance_level_id,
                      SecurityClearanceLevel.all, :id, :name) %>

Take a look at the Rails Guide on the select and option tags for the full details.