Rails object method returning full array - ruby-on-rails-4

Question

I'm having an issue with an association. I've got an Employee model that belongs_to a Role model. When I try to display the association, I get the full array displayed back.
Here's the show action from my Employee controller. As you can see, I've tried a few different methods to make the proper association in the first place:
def show
#employee = Employee.find(params[:id])
# #role = Role.where(:id => #employee)
# #role = Role.find_by_sql("select roles.role_title from roles where roles.id in (select role_id from employees where role_id='1')")
#role = Role.where(id: #employee)
end
And here's the view:
<p>
<strong>Role:</strong>
<%= #role.each do |r|
r.role_title
end %>
</p>
My output comes back as:
Role: [#<Role id: 3, role_title: "Support Engineer", created_at: "2014-08-20 16:09:22", updated_at: "2014-08-20 16:09:22">]
What am I missing here?

Answer 1

You need to actually iterate and display something for each role.
<%= %> means "display the result of the expression", which in your case, is an each.
each returns the collection you were iterating over. You want something closer to:
<% #role.each do |r| %>
<%= r.role_title %><br/>
<% end %>
Although it obviously depends on what you actually want to display, for example:
<%= #role.collect(&:role_title).join(', ') %>
Unrelated: I might argue that Role#role_title is redundant and Role#title would be sufficient.

Answer 2

If the employee belongs_to a role there is only one role for each employee.
You can retrieve it as easily as specifying...
#employee.role
but if you insist on constructing a separate retrieval then
#role = Role.where(id: #employee.role_id).first
EDIT
So talking about the views... if there's only one #role you don't need to iterate through an array...
<p>
<strong>Role:</strong> <%= #role.role_title %>
</p>
You're seeing an array because the where returns an array, you could bypass that with...
#role = Role.where(id: #employee).first
As Dave Newton pointed out, if it really was an array you'd need to do...
<p>
<strong>Role:</strong>
<% #role.each do |r| %>
<%= r.role_title %>
<% end %>
</p>