Printing elements of array using ERB
arrays, erb, ruby, ruby-on-rails
Solution
Erb, the templating engine you're using in your views, has a few different ways of embedding ruby code inside templates.
When you put code inside `<%= %>` blocks, erb evaluates the code inside and prints the value of the last statement in the HTML. Since `.each` in ruby returns the collection you iterated over, the loop using `<%= %>` attempts to print a string representation of the entire array.
When you put code inside `<% %>` blocks, erb just evaluates the code, not printing anything. This allows you to do conditional statements, loops, or modify variables in the view.
You can also remove the `puts` from `puts t`. Erb knows to try to convert the last value it saw inside `<%= %>` into a string for display.
Problem
I'm trying to print a simple array defined in my controller into my view with a new line for each element. But what it's doing is printing the whole array on one line. Here's my controller: ``` class TodosController < ApplicationController def index @todo_array = [ "Buy Milk", "Buy Soap", "Pay bill", "Draw Money" ] end end ``` Here's my view: ``` <%= @todo_array.each do |t| %> <%= puts t %><\br> <% end %> ``` Here's the result: ``` <\br> <\br> <\br> <\br> ["Buy Milk", "Buy Soap", "Pay bill", "Draw Money"] ```