# A question about select\_tag

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/a-question-about-select-tag/37683>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [December 25, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/a-question-about-select-tag/37683 "2008-12-25T08:11:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/a-question-about-select-tag/37683/1 "2008-12-25T08:11:51Z")

</div>

I use select\_tag to create a dropdown selection box:

select\_tag "people", "\<option\>David\</option\>\<option\>Mike\</option\>"

but I want the option value is from a variable in a controller. How can I do this?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hassan](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/hassan/32/714_2.png) [@hassan](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/hassan)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 4:00pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/a-question-about-select-tag/37683/2 "2008-12-25T16:00:58Z")

</div>

See the docs for `options_from_collection_for_select`.

HTH,

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Nellboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Nellboy](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Nellboy)\
**Post date:** [December 25, 2008, 6:33pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/a-question-about-select-tag/37683/3 "2008-12-25T18:33:13Z")

</div>

try:

select\_tag 'people', options\_for\_select(@names)