I seem to run into this very often. I need to build a Hash from an array using an attribute of each object in the array as the key.
Lets say I need a hash of example us
Install the Ruby Facets Gem and use their Array.to_h.
a shortest one?
# 'Region' is a sample class here
# you can put 'self.to_hash' method into any class you like
class Region < ActiveRecord::Base
def self.to_hash
Hash[*all.map{ |x| [x.id, x] }.flatten]
end
end
There is already a method in ActiveSupport that does this.
['an array', 'of active record', 'objects'].index_by(&:id)
And just for the record, here's the implementation:
def index_by
inject({}) do |accum, elem|
accum[yield(elem)] = elem
accum
end
end
Which could have been refactored into (if you're desperate for one-liners):
def index_by
inject({}) {|hash, elem| hash.merge!(yield(elem) => elem) }
end
You can add to_hash to Array yourself.
class Array
def to_hash(&block)
Hash[*self.map {|e| [block.call(e), e] }.flatten]
end
end
ary = [collection of ActiveRecord objects]
ary.to_hash do |element|
element.id
end
In case someone got plain array
arr = ["banana", "apple"]
Hash[arr.map.with_index.to_a]
=> {"banana"=>0, "apple"=>1}