ruby on rails - Interpreting output from query -

i have been stuck few hours on little problem have , thankful if help.

my ultimate goal here unique states , link each of states it's page show communities state belongs_to.

i have tried fiddling around 2 alternatives, alt.1 gives me array makes easy fit .each loop no id find communities with. alt.2 gives me id & state output in format don't recognize.

# model class community... has_one :location  class location... belongs_to :community  # view # alt.1 location.pluck("distinct state")  # alt.2 location.select('distinct on(state) id, state') => [#<location id: 2, state: "oakland">, #<location id:4, state: "south carolina">] 

solution both or alternative alternatives appreciated.

a couple of things:

1) athar said, second correct, , activerecord objects. more activerecord way location.select('state').uniq.map(&:state), return array of states.

2) read http://guides.rubyonrails.org/active_record_querying.html - don't think select think does.

3) may useful in future have states table, not need populate initial values migration, instead of having string column on location. enforce location references existing state.