Michael J. I. Jackson wrote: > Sorry, it was just a guess! Those place holders are obviously only for > user values then. You'll just have to use quote_column_name to > interpolate the string manually. Or keep it simple: def col(colname) raise ArgumentError, "Bad column name" unless colname =~ /\A\w+\z/ colname end Address.find(:all, :conditions => ["#{col(c)} LIKE ?","Luehr" ]) Personally I would be uncomfortable allowing users to query on absolutely any column, even one that I had not indexed or was perhaps used for internal or auditing purposes. So I would prefer: ALLOWED_COLS = { 'first_name' => true, 'last_name' => true, }.freeze def col(colname) raise ArgumentError, "Bad column name" unless ALLOWED_COLS[colname] colname end -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.