# add symbol in collection\_select helper

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/add-symbol-in-collection-select-helper/45418>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [August 24, 2009, 10:57am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/add-symbol-in-collection-select-helper/45418 "2009-08-24T10:57:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mauricio\_Linhares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mauricio\_Linhares](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Mauricio_Linhares)\
**Post date:** [August 24, 2009, 10:57am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/add-symbol-in-collection-select-helper/45418/1 "2009-08-24T10:57:23Z")

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\<%= f.select :report\_ids, @reports.map { |r| ["#{r.name} #{r.surname}", r.id] } , {}, :multiple =\> true, :size =\> 10 %\>

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**Author:** ![sandeep2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@sandeep2](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/sandeep2)\
**Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/add-symbol-in-collection-select-helper/45418/2 "2009-09-18T22:18:58Z")

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hi I am new to rails, here why dont we use a method which is not a table attribute but a user defined one which is defined as we need like display of both surname and name concatenated. i tried but i am getting error pls clarify me thanks in advance

Maurício Linhares wrote: