Converting Ruby Hash keys to Strings/Symbols
When working with Ruby Hashes, you may find that there are two ways to interact with them, using the String notation commonly seen with JSON, but also using Ruby's Symbol concept.
In case you're not intimately familiar with them, you can see below an example of how to interact with either a String or Symbol key:
hash_str = {
'key' => true
}
hash_str = {
key: true
}
p hash_str
# {"key"=>true}
p hash_str[:key]
# nil
p hash_str['key']
# true
p hash_sym
# {:key=>true}
p hash_sym[:key]
# true
p hash_sym['key']
# nil
If you don't know which way a Hash is formatted, it can be worth re-writing the keys to a format you want to deal with.
We can adapt the steps from StackOverflow, and provide a helper method on Hash itself, which will recursively convert the keys to either strings or symbols:
class ::Hash
# via https://stackoverflow.com/a/25835016/2257038
def stringify_keys
h = self.map do |k,v|
v_str = if v.instance_of? Hash
v.stringify_keys
else
v
end
[k.to_s, v_str]
end
Hash[h]
end
# via https://stackoverflow.com/a/25835016/2257038
def symbol_keys
h = self.map do |k,v|
v_sym = if v.instance_of? Hash
v.symbol_keys
else
v
end
[k.to_sym, v_sym]
end
Hash[h]
end
end
This allows us to perform the following:
hash_str = {
'key' => true
}
hash_str = {
key: true
}
p hash_sym.stringify_keys
# {"key"=>true}
p hash_str.symbol_keys
# {:key=>true}
