How to save an array of information coming from a hash in Ruby

Question

I am new to ruby and don't have much experience with hashes, I have a variable named tweets and it is a hash as such:

{"statuses"=>[{"metadata"=>{"result_type"=>"recent", "iso_language_code"=>"tl"}, "lang"=>"tl"}]}

I would like to save the array of information as a separate variable in an array. How would I go about this?

is should look like: [{"metadata"=>{"result_type"=>"recent", "iso_language_code"=>"tl"}, "lang"=>"tl"}] — cmart, Jun 19 '13 at 15:01
I think you should consider flattening the whole into a another ..that will be simpler than a array.. — sethi, Jun 19 '13 at 15:04
You mean like: `new_array = tweets['statuses'].dup`? (The `dup` to make sure `new_array` doesn't get altered by changes to `tweets`) — Charles Caldwell, Jun 19 '13 at 15:05

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

1

Hash's have 2 very nice methods,

hash.values
hash.keys

in your case -

h = {"statuses"=>[{"metadata"=>{"result_type"=>"recent", "iso_language_code"=>"tl"}, "lang"=>"tl"}]}
p h.values
p.keys

These output arrays of each type. This might be what you want.

Also, this question will very well be closed. 1 Google search reported several Hash to Array SO questions.

Ruby Hash to array of values
Converting Ruby hashes to arrays

edited May 23 '17 at 12:05

Community

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1

answered Jun 19 '13 at 14:59

ddavison

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hash.values doesnt work because it creates a new array of the array. I cant have the extra array – cmart Jun 19 '13 at 15:01

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 19 '13 at 15:19

If you have a Hash like so:

hash = {:numbers => [1,2,3,4]}

And you need to capture the array into a new variable. You can just access the key and assign it to a new variable like so:

one_to_five = hash[:numbers]

However, note that the new variable actually holds the array that is in the hash. So altering the hash's array alters the new variable's array.

hash[:numbers] << 6
puts one_to_five #=> [1,2,3,4,5,6]

If you use dup, it will create a copy of the array so it will be two separate arrays.

one_to_five = hash[:numbers].dup
hash[:numbers] << 6
puts one_to_five #=> [1,2,3,4,5]

So, in your case:

hash = {'statuses' => [{"metadata"=>{"result_type"=>"recent", "iso_language_code"=>"tl"}, "lang"=>"tl"}]}
new_array = hash['statuses'].dup

However, it would be interesting to see what it is you are wishing to accomplish with your code, or at least get a little more context, because this may not be the best approach for your final goal. There are a great many things you can do with Arrays and Hashes (and Enumerable) and I would encourage you to read through the documentation on them.

How to save an array of information coming from a hash in Ruby

2 Answers2