Creating an md5 hash of a number, string, array, or hash in Ruby

Question

I need to create a signature string for a variable in Ruby, where the variable can be a number, a string, a hash, or an array. The hash values and array elements can also be any

Answer 1

Just my 2 cents:

module Ext
  module Hash
    module InstanceMethods
      # Return a string suitable for generating content signature.
      # Signature image does not depend on order of keys.
      #
      #   {:a => 1, :b => 2}.signature_image == {:b => 2, :a => 1}.signature_image                  # => true
      #   {{:a => 1, :b => 2} => 3}.signature_image == {{:b => 2, :a => 1} => 3}.signature_image    # => true
      #   etc.
      #
      # NOTE: Signature images of identical content generated under different versions of Ruby are NOT GUARANTEED to be identical.
      def signature_image
        # Store normalized key-value pairs here.
        ar = []

        each do |k, v|
          ar << [
            k.is_a?(::Hash) ? k.signature_image : [k.class.to_s, k.inspect].join(":"),
            v.is_a?(::Hash) ? v.signature_image : [v.class.to_s, v.inspect].join(":"),
          ]
        end

        ar.sort.inspect
      end
    end
  end
end

class Hash    #:nodoc:
  include Ext::Hash::InstanceMethods
end