eval issue in Rails view

Any idea why the following code :

<% model_set = instance_variable_set("@#{table_name}", eval("#{model_name}.all")) %>

produces this runtime error:

(eval):1: syntax error, unexpected '.'

The code correctly sets the instance variable @countries to the output from executing Country.all in the console or when using byebug (model_name is "Country" and table_name is "countries").

Should this be in a helper anyway?

Thanks in advance for assistance.

This was due to erroneous check in a containing loop which caused a blank model name to be used in the eval. The code is fine.