How to get selected value in select in rails 3? - ruby-on-rails-3

Question

I want to know how to get the selected value of <select>. I only know how to populate this.
Here's is my code in index.html.erb. I used this to populate the <select> dropdown menu.
<h1>Trap</h1>
<%= form_for #search do |f| %>
<p>
Employee Code:
<%= f.select(:empcode_contains, #employee.collect {|e| [ e.empcode, e.id ]}) %>
</p>
<p class="button"><%= f.submit "Search" %></p>
<% end %>
<p>
Sort by:
<%= sort_link #search, :empcode %> |
<%= sort_link #search, :date_entry %> |
</p>
<table>
<tr>
<th>Empcode</th>
<th>Date entry</th>
<th></th>
<th></th>
<th></th>
</tr>
<% #traps.each do |trap| %>
<tr>
<td><%= trap.empcode %></td>
<td><%= trap.date_entry %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Show', trap %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Edit', edit_trap_path(trap) %></td>
<td><%= link_to 'Destroy', trap, :confirm => 'Are you sure?', :method => :delete %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>
<br />
<%= link_to 'New Trap', new_trap_path %>
And in my controller traps_controller.rb:
def index
#search = Trap.search(params[:search])
#traps = #search.all
#employee = Employee.all
Trap.all.each do |t|
Employee.create(:empcode => t.empcode)
end
respond_to do |format|
format.html # index.html.erb
format.xml { render :xml => #traps }
end
end
Pls tell me how to get the selected value if the user selects a value. I don't have any idea.

Answer 1

Try (in the controller) :
value = params[:empcode_contains]
or you could fetch the whole object this way:
search = params[:search]