How do I reverse Hash.inspect or Array.inspect? (aka .to_s) in Ruby

Question

I accidentally saved a Ruby hash to string in Ruby 1.9 by calling my_hash.to_s which is equal to my_hash.inspect. This gave me a string like this:

'{"foo"=>{"bar"=>"baz", "qux"=>"quux"}'

I now want to revert this back into a hash. How is this done?

I'm not looking for an explanation on other serialisation techniques, I know them. I just need a way to revert this back so I can save it the right way.

score 22 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 15 '11 at 19:38

22

The fastest answer is: eval.

my_hash = eval(my_str_hash)

answered Aug 15 '11 at 19:38

Sony Santos

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So, if you like my answer, you must accept it by clicking on the "√" :) – Sony Santos Aug 17 '11 at 13:22
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WARNING: never, NEVER eval untrusted input. – Ry Biesemeyer Nov 09 '15 at 19:58

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 15 '11 at 19:37

6

eval it.

Of course that's not safe for arbitrary input but you said you know about serialization issues. It won't work for collections containing recursive references or other objects for which eval(x.inspect) != x.

answered Aug 15 '11 at 19:37

Jürgen Strobel

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How do I reverse Hash.inspect or Array.inspect? (aka .to_s) in Ruby

2 Answers2