Remove blank element from array

Question

When I'm saving multiple select from a ruby on rails form it appears to be adding a blank element at the front. How do I remove it? The field is selected_player.

{"utf8"=>"✓",
 "authenticity_token"=>"H8W7qPBezubyeU0adnTGZ4oJqYErin1QNz5oK0QV6WY=",
 "schedule"=>{"event"=>"1",
 "result_id"=>"",
 "time"=>"26/10/2012",
 "duration"=>"15",
 "arrival_time"=>"14",
 "location_id"=>"25",
 "selected_players"=>["", "38", "41"],
 "team_id"=>"1",
 "opponent_id"=>"7",
 "home_or_away"=>"Home"},
 "commit"=>"Save Event"}

controller

def update
  @schedule = Schedule.find(params[:id])
  @user = User.find(current_user)
  @players = User.where(:team_id => current_user[:team_id]).all

  respond_to do |format|
    if @schedule.update_attributes(params[:schedule])
      Notifier.event_added(@user,@schedule).deliver
      format.html { redirect_to(@schedule,
                                :notice => "#{event_display_c(@schedule.event)} vs #{@schedule.opponent.name} was successfully updated.") }
      format.json { head :no_content }
    else
      format.html { render :action => "edit" }
      format.json { render :json => @schedule.errors, :status => :unprocessable_entity }
    end
  end
end

Answer 1

This works for empty strings:

array.delete_if(&:empty?)

To filter out empty strings and nil values use:

array.delete_if(&:blank?)

Example:

>> a = ["A", "B", "", nil]
=> ["A", "B", "", nil]
>> a.delete_if(&:blank?)
=> ["A", "B"]