In Rails, how can I take a GET string and parse it into an object?

Question

I’m positive this is a dupe, but I couldn’t find the original.

Given a GET-style string like foo=bar&x[0]=baz, how can I decode this into a params-like array in a Rails app?

Updated to add: Note that CGI.parse seems to do much less than whatever magic Rails does:

1.9.3p194 :006 > CGI::parse 'foo=bar&x[foo][bar]=baz'
 => {"foo"=>["bar"], "x[foo][bar]"=>["baz"]}

CGI.parse didn’t unpack the nested objects into a mult-level hash. In Rails, at some level, this is actually examined.

Here's one with several possible answers: [How to extract URL parameters...](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2500462/how-to-extract-url-parameters-from-a-url-with-ruby-or-rails) — Zach Kemp, Oct 17 '12 at 18:06

cdesrosiers · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-17T18:07:39.633

9

For nested queries, Rails uses Racks' parameter parser Rack::Utils.parse_nested_query:

Rack::Utils.parse_nested_query 'foo=bar&x[foo][bar]=baz'
 => {"foo"=>"bar", "x"=>{"foo"=>{"bar"=>"baz"}}}

edited Oct 17 '12 at 18:07

answered Oct 17 '12 at 17:48

cdesrosiers

Thanks. It seems Rails does more magic on top of this, though, especially w.r.t. hard brackets. Editing my question to add this. – Alan H. Oct 17 '12 at 17:53

1 Answers1