Using check_box

Stewart Matheson wrote:

If I wish to create a set of checkboxs based on the rows of a table in my database would I have to loop through each row of the database using a for loop? or can I just use the check box method once and pass it an array of values?

I'm not sure if there is an existing helper. I generally use a loop:

<% @categories.each do |category| %>    <%= check_box_tag("product[category_ids]",                                  category.id,     @product.categories.include?(category)) %>     <%= category.name %><br/> <% end %>

The above code demonstrates the assigning of categories to products in a has and belongs to many relationship.

This could easily be extracted into a helper for use throughout your application.

There are a few plugins related to checkboxes and other form helper - you could either use those or take a look at the source for inspiration for your own code: http://www.agilewebdevelopment.com/plugins/search?search=checkbox

Hope that helps,

Steve