An example of using options_for_select with select_tag
<%=select_tag 'category_id', options_for_select(Category.all.collect{ |u| [u.name, u.id] })
%>
This would generate something like:
<select id="user_id" name="user_id"> <option value="1">Brad</option> <option value="2">Angie</option> <option value="3">Jenny</option> </select>