Accessing elements of nested hashes in ruby [duplicate]

Answer 1

This monkey patch function for Hash should be easiest (at least for me). It also doesn't alter structure i.e. changing nil's to {}. It would still also apply even if you're reading a tree from a raw source e.g. JSON. It also doesn't need to produce empty hash objects as it goes or parse a string. rescue nil was actually a good easy solution for me as I'm brave enough for such a low risk but I find it to essentially have a drawback with performance.

class ::Hash
  def recurse(*keys)
    v = self[keys.shift]
    while keys.length > 0
      return nil if not v.is_a? Hash
      v = v[keys.shift]
    end
    v
  end
end

Example:

> structure = { :a => { :b => 'foo' }}
=> {:a=>{:b=>"foo"}}

> structure.recurse(:a, :b)
=> "foo"

> structure.recurse(:a, :x)
=> nil

What's also good is that you can play around saved arrays with it:

> keys = [:a, :b]
=> [:a, :b]

> structure.recurse(*keys)
=> "foo"

> structure.recurse(*keys, :x1, :x2)
=> nil

Answer 2

I think one of the most readable solutions is using Hashie:

require 'hashie'
myhash = Hashie::Mash.new({foo: {bar: "blah" }})

myhash.foo.bar
=> "blah"    

myhash.foo?
=> true

# use "underscore dot" for multi-level testing
myhash.foo_.bar?
=> true
myhash.foo_.huh_.what?
=> false

Answer 3

Solution 1

I suggested this in my question before:

class NilClass; def to_hash; {} end end

Hash#to_hash is already defined, and returns self. Then you can do:

value = structure[:a].to_hash[:b]

The to_hash ensures that you get an empty hash when the previous key search fails.

Solution2

This solution is similar in spirit to mu is too short's answer in that it uses a subclass, but still somewhat different. In case there is no value for a certain key, it does not use a default value, but rather creates a value of empty hash, so that it does not have the problem of confusion in assigment that DigitalRoss's answer has, as was pointed out by mu is too short.

class NilFreeHash < Hash
  def [] key; key?(key) ? super(key) : self[key] = NilFreeHash.new end
end

structure = NilFreeHash.new
structure[:a][:b] = 3
p strucrture[:a][:b] # => 3

It departs from the specification given in the question, though. When an undefined key is given, it will return an empty hash instread of nil.

p structure[:c] # => {}

If you build an instance of this NilFreeHash from the beginning and assign the key-values, it will work, but if you want to convert a hash into an instance of this class, that may be a problem.

Answer 4

You can use the andand gem, but I'm becoming more and more wary of it:

>> structure = { :a => { :b => 'foo' }} #=> {:a=>{:b=>"foo"}}
>> require 'andand' #=> true
>> structure[:a].andand[:b] #=> "foo"
>> structure[:c].andand[:b] #=> nil

Answer 5

require 'xkeys'

structure = {}.extend XKeys::Hash
structure[:a, :b] # nil
structure[:a, :b, :else => 0] # 0 (contextual default)
structure[:a] # nil, even after above
structure[:a, :b] = 'foo'
structure[:a, :b] # foo

Answer 6

The way I usually do this these days is:

h = Hash.new { |h,k| h[k] = {} }

This will give you a hash that creates a new hash as the entry for a missing key, but returns nil for the second level of key:

h['foo'] -> {}
h['foo']['bar'] -> nil

You can nest this to add multiple layers that can be addressed this way:

h = Hash.new { |h, k| h[k] = Hash.new { |hh, kk| hh[kk] = {} } }

h['bar'] -> {}
h['tar']['zar'] -> {}
h['scar']['far']['mar'] -> nil

You can also chain indefinitely by using the default_proc method:

h = Hash.new { |h, k| h[k] = Hash.new(&h.default_proc) }

h['bar'] -> {}
h['tar']['star']['par'] -> {}

The above code creates a hash whose default proc creates a new Hash with the same default proc. So, a hash created as a default value when a lookup for an unseen key occurs will have the same default behavior.

EDIT: More details

Ruby hashes allow you to control how default values are created when a lookup occurs for a new key. When specified, this behavior is encapsulated as a Proc object and is reachable via the default_proc and default_proc= methods. The default proc can also be specified by passing a block to Hash.new.

Let's break this code down a little. This is not idiomatic ruby, but it's easier to break it out into multiple lines:

1. recursive_hash = Hash.new do |h, k|
2.   h[k] = Hash.new(&h.default_proc)
3. end

Line 1 declares a variable recursive_hash to be a new Hash and begins a block to be recursive_hash's default_proc. The block is passed two objects: h, which is the Hash instance the key lookup is being performed on, and k, the key being looked up.

Line 2 sets the default value in the hash to a new Hash instance. The default behavior for this hash is supplied by passing a Proc created from the default_proc of the hash the lookup is occurring in; ie, the default proc the block itself is defining.

Here's an example from an IRB session:

irb(main):011:0> recursive_hash = Hash.new do |h,k|
irb(main):012:1* h[k] = Hash.new(&h.default_proc)
irb(main):013:1> end
=> {}
irb(main):014:0> recursive_hash[:foo]
=> {}
irb(main):015:0> recursive_hash
=> {:foo=>{}}

When the hash at recursive_hash[:foo] was created, its default_proc was supplied by recursive_hash's default_proc. This has two effects:

1. The default behavior for recursive_hash[:foo] is the same as recursive_hash.
2. The default behavior for hashes created by recursive_hash[:foo]'s default_proc will be the same as recursive_hash.

So, continuing in IRB, we get the following:

irb(main):016:0> recursive_hash[:foo][:bar]
=> {}
irb(main):017:0> recursive_hash
=> {:foo=>{:bar=>{}}}
irb(main):018:0> recursive_hash[:foo][:bar][:zap]
=> {}
irb(main):019:0> recursive_hash
=> {:foo=>{:bar=>{:zap=>{}}}}