I'm trying to figure out how to add records to an existing object for each iteration of a loop. I'm having a hard time discovering the difference between an object and an array.

I have this

 @events = Event.find(1)
 @loops = Choices.find(:all, :limit => 5)  #so loop for 5 instances of choice model
 for loop in @loops
       @events = Event.find(:all,:conditions => ["event.id = ?", loop.event_id ])
 end

I'm trying to add a new events to the existing @events object based on the id of whatever the loop variable is. But the ( = ) operator just creates a new instance of the @events object.

I tried ( += ) and ( << ) as operators but got the error

"You have a nil object when you didn't expect it! You might have expected an instance of Array. The error occurred while evaluating nil"

I tried created an array

 events = []
 events << Event.find(1)
 @loops = Choices.find(:all, :limit => 5)  #so loop for 5 instances of choice model
 for loop in @loops
       events << Event.find(:all,:conditions => ["event.id = ?", loop.event_id ])
 end

But I dont know how to call that arrays attributes within the view

With objects I was able do create a loop within the view and call all the attributes of that object as well...

<table> 
<% for event in @events %>
<tr>
  <td><%= link_to event.title, event %></td>
  <td><%= event.start_date %></td>
  <td><%= event.price %></td>
</tr>
<% end %>
</table>

How could i do this with an array set?

So the questions are

1) Whats the difference between arrays and objects?
2) Is there a way to add into the existing object for each iteration?
3) If I use an array, is there a way to call the attributes for each array record within the view?