# variable using problem

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/variable-using-problem/40478>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [March 16, 2009, 9:18am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/variable-using-problem/40478 "2009-03-16T09:18:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![engamocap1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f14d63/32.png) [@engamocap1](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/engamocap1)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2009, 9:18am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/variable-using-problem/40478/1 "2009-03-16T09:18:37Z")

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I have an array A = ['XXX','YYY','ZZZ','RRR','WWW'] For each element of array I must execute a query on my database. I don't want write this code:

A.each { &nbsp;&nbsp;\>elem\> &nbsp;&nbsp;case elem &nbsp;&nbsp;when 'XXX' do Model.find(:all,:select =\> 'COD',:group =\> 'COD',:include =\> :table).map{|el| el.table.XXX}.sort &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;. &nbsp;&nbsp;end }

I'd like this:

A.each { &nbsp;&nbsp;\>elem\> &nbsp;&nbsp;Model.find(:all,:select =\> 'COD',:group =\> 'COD',:include =\> :table).map{|el| el.table.elem}.sort }

But there's a problem in this code. Can you help me? Can I write that? Thank you very much

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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:** [March 16, 2009, 11:17am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/variable-using-problem/40478/2 "2009-03-16T11:17:44Z")

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> I'd like this:
> 
> A.each { \>elem\> Model.find(:all,:select =\> 'COD',:group =\> 'COD',:include =\> :table).map{|el| el.table.elem}.sort
> 
> }

For a given attribute, some\_record['foo'] gets you the attribute value. You might also be interested in the send method.

Fred