what is the best way to convert a json formatted key value pair to ruby hash with symbol as key?

Question

I am wondering what is the best way to convert a json formatted key value pair to ruby hash with symbol as key: example:

{ \'user\': { \'name\': \'foo\', \'         


        

Answer 1

There isn't anything built in to do the trick, but it's not too hard to write the code to do it using the JSON gem. There is a symbolize_keys method built into Rails if you're using that, but that doesn't symbolize keys recursively like you need.

require 'json'

def json_to_sym_hash(json)
  json.gsub!('\'', '"')
  parsed = JSON.parse(json)
  symbolize_keys(parsed)
end

def symbolize_keys(hash)
  hash.inject({}){|new_hash, key_value|
    key, value = key_value
    value = symbolize_keys(value) if value.is_a?(Hash)
    new_hash[key.to_sym] = value
    new_hash
  }
end

As Leventix said, the JSON gem only handles double quoted strings (which is technically correct - JSON should be formatted with double quotes). This bit of code will clean that up before trying to parse it.