cleaner way to write this...

One thing I'd suggest is writing a function in the model like this:

def full_address     [first_name + ' ' + last_name,      address1,      address2,      city + ' ' + state + ',' + zip].compact # compact removes nil values from an array end

and then a helper

def format_address(object)     object.respond_to?("full_address") and object.full_address.join("<br>") end

Gareth