# How Select just some columns ?

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/how-select-just-some-columns/41305>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [April 7, 2009, 10:17am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/how-select-just-some-columns/41305 "2009-04-07T10:17:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Frederick\_Cheung](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/frederick_cheung/32/3901_2.png) [@Frederick\_Cheung](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Frederick_Cheung)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:17am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/how-select-just-some-columns/41305/1 "2009-04-07T10:17:30Z")

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> Hi,
> 
> if I do: user = User.find :all render :xml =\> user.to\_xml
> 
> I obviously get the user records whith ALL the columns (name, surname, tel, email, ...)

depending on what you're doing, either use the :select option on the call to find or the :only/:except options on to\_xml may be what you want.

Fred

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**Author:** ![11175](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/8edcca/32.png) [@11175](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/11175)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2009, 10:33am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/how-select-just-some-columns/41305/2 "2009-04-07T10:33:14Z")

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':select' is perfect:

users = User.find(:all, :select = 'email')

I overlooked it in RoR api. Thank you !

Alessandro

Frederick Cheung wrote: