What is a elegant way in Ruby to tell if a variable is a Hash or an Array?

Question

To check what @some_var is, I am doing a

if @some_var.class.to_s == \'Hash\' 

I am sure there is a more elegant way to check if

Answer 1

First of all, the best answer for the literal question is

Hash === @some_var

But the question really should have been answered by showing how to do duck-typing here. That depends a bit on what kind of duck you need.

@some_var.respond_to?(:each_pair)

or

@some_var.respond_to?(:has_key?)

or even

@some_var.respond_to?(:to_hash)

may be right depending on the application.

Answer 2

Usually in ruby when you are looking for "type" you are actually wanting the "duck-type" or "does is quack like a duck?". You would see if it responds to a certain method:

@some_var.respond_to?(:each)

You can iterate over @some_var because it responds to :each

If you really want to know the type and if it is Hash or Array then you can do:

["Hash", "Array"].include?(@some_var.class)  #=> check both through instance class
@some_var.kind_of?(Hash)    #=> to check each at once
@some_var.is_a?(Array)   #=> same as kind_of

Answer 3

irb(main):005:0> {}.class
=> Hash
irb(main):006:0> [].class
=> Array