Ruby access hash within an array within a hash (and add new hash)

Question

I'm new to Ruby and still learning about hashes. I've tried looking here for other similar answers but wasn't able to find anything that completely answered my question.

I have some data stored in a hash structure that I'm feeding into a script that updates a Neo4j database ( so this data structure is important ):

    data = {
        a: [
        {
            label: 'Person',
            title: 'Manager',
            name: 'Mike Waldo'
        },
        {   
            label: 'Person',
            title: 'Developer',
            name: 'Jeff Smith',
        },
        ],

        b: [
        {   
            type: 'ABC',
            source: 'abcde',
            destination: ['Jeff Dudley', 'Mike Wells', 'Vanessa Jones']
        }
        ]
    }

I've figured out how to return individual values:

data.each{|x, y| puts y[0][:name]}

Returns: Mike Waldo

Two questions:

1) How do I return the 'labels', 'titles', and 'names' from array 'a: [ ]' only?

2) How do I add and save a new hash under array 'a: [ ]' but not ':b [ ]'?

Thanks in advance for the help!

You might want to check out the `neo4j` / `neo4j-core` gems which let you work with Neo4j at a higher level. I'm one of the maintainers and I'm happy to help if you have any questions! — Brian Underwood, Jun 10 '15 at 12:22
@BrianUnderwood Cool, I looked at it today and it looks like some great stuff! And thanks for the offer, I actually have one [question that's somewhat related.](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/30770914/how-do-i-create-a-neo4j-relationship-via-the-rails-console) — Chris, Jun 11 '15 at 03:15
Awesome, looks like my colleague Chris beat me to it! ;) I added a bit, though — Brian Underwood, Jun 11 '15 at 17:04

Lukas Baliak · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-08T22:13:47.493

You can return values for specific key (:a)

data[:a]
# => [{:label=>"Person", :title=>"Manager", :name=>"Mike Waldo"}, {:label=>"Person", :title=>"Developer", :name=>"Jeff Smith"}]

And if you need to save value to :a Hash so you just use

data[:a] << {:label => "new label", :name => "new name", :titles => "new title"}
# => [{:label=>"Person", :title=>"Manager", :name=>"Mike Waldo"}, {:label=>"Person", :title=>"Developer", :name=>"Jeff Smith"}, {:label=>"new label", :name=>"new name", :titles=>"new title"}]

btw: your command (data.each{|x, y| puts y[0][:name]}) just return name value for fist hash if you need all names for all hashe you can use

data.each do |k, a|
  a.each do |h|
    puts h[:name]
  end
end

data[:a]! That was what I wasn't getting. Thanks for the help! — Chris, Jun 08 '15 at 23:36

Ruby access hash within an array within a hash (and add new hash)

1 Answers1