How to convert a string to an array using Ruby on Rails

Question

I have a text field that takes in a string value, like

"games,fun,sports"

My main goal here is to take the string and turn it into a Array like this:

[games, fun, sports]

in the filters attribute for the integrations object I have. Right now I have the beginning of a method that doesn't seem to work.

Here is my code:

View:

  <%= form_for @integrations, url: url_for(:controller => :integrations, :action => :update, :id => @integrations.id) do |f| %>
   <%= f.label :filters %>
   <%= f.text_field :filters, class: "filter-autocomplete" %>
   <%= f.submit "Save" %>
  <% end %>

That is the text field that takes in the string.

Model:

def filters=(filters)

end

This is the place that I'd like to make the switch from string to array.

Controller:

 def update
    @integrations = current_account.integrations.find(params[:id])

    if @integrations.update_attributes(update_params)
      flash[:success] = "Filters added"
      redirect_to account_integrations_path
    else
      render :filters
    end
  end

  def filters
    @integrations = current_account.integrations.find(params[:id])
  end

  private

  def update_params
    [:integration_webhook, :integration_pager_duty, :integration_slack].each do |model|
      return params.require(model).permit(:filters) if params.has_key?(model)
    end
  end

So, recap: I have a integrations model that takes in a string of filters. I want a method that will break up the string into an element of filter attributes.

Here is the object that I'm trying to add the filters to:

Object:

 id: "5729de33-befa-4f05-8033-b0acd5c4ee4b",
 user_id: nil,
 type: "Integration::Webhook",
 settings: {"hook_url"=>"https://hooks.zapier.com/hooks/catch/1062282/4b0h0daa/"},
 created_at: Mon, 29 Aug 2016 03:30:29 UTC +00:00,
 owner_id: "59d4357f-3210-4ddc-9cb9-3c758fc1ef3a",
 filters: "[\"Hey\", \"ohh\"]">

As you can see the filters is what I'm trying to modify. Instead of this in the object:

"[\"Hey\", \"ohh\"]"

I would like this:

[Hey, ohh]

[games, fun, sports] and [Hey, ohh] would be an illegal array definition unless games, fun, sports, Hey and ohh are variables. — the Tin Man
– the Tin Man, Commented Sep 5, 2016 at 21:29

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-05 21:31:38Z

14

It's not clear what you're after, but generally, when you have a string like:

"games,fun,sports"

you can use split(',') to break it on the commas and turn it into an array of strings:

"games,fun,sports".split(',') # => ["games", "fun", "sports"]

If you're receiving a JSON encoded array of strings, it'll look like:

'["games", "fun", "sports"]'

AKA:

'["games", "fun", "sports"]' # => "[\"games\", \"fun\", \"sports\"]"

which can be returned to a Ruby array of strings easily enough:

require 'json'

JSON['["games", "fun", "sports"]'] # => ["games", "fun", "sports"]

answered Sep 5, 2016 at 21:31

the Tin Man

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2 Comments

tadman Over a year ago

The Rails to_json method is pretty handy and always present.

Pere Joan Martorell Over a year ago

@tadman to_json generates a string from an array, but it's intended to be the opposite

Alyssa · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-05 21:36:47Z

3

One option is to use JSON.

require 'json'
filters = "[\"Hey\", \"ohh\"]"
JSON.parse(filters)

returns:

["Hey","ohh"]

answered Sep 5, 2016 at 21:36

Alyssa

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Comments

Alejandro Escobar · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-05 21:26:02Z

0

You need to remove extra characters and then split the string into array using the split pattern like this:

"[\"Hey\", \"ohh\"]".gsub(/(\[\"|\"\])/, '').split('", "')

Which returns:

["Hey", "ohh"]

answered Sep 5, 2016 at 21:26

Alejandro Escobar

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