How would you convert a string to an array in Ruby?
What I want to do is convert a string like "[value1, value2, value3]" to an array [value1, value2, value3]. Keep in mind some of these values may be strings themselves.
I am trying to write it in a method called str_to_ary.
def str_to_ary
@to_convert = self
#however everything I try beyond this point fails
end
Well, that looks like a JSON.
require 'json'
def str_to_ary
JSON.parse(@to_convert)
end
Note that this is true and works only if those string values in there are between double quotes, not single quotes.
value1 is neither of those things, therefore the string is not valid JSON and cannot be parsed as JSON.value1 etc are numbers or stringswell if you know that [ is always on the first place and ] is always on the last place then you can start with
string = "[X, 1, Test, 22, 3]"
trimmed = string[1,string.length-2]
array = trimmed.split(", ")
array => ["X", " 1", " Test", " 22", " 3"]
if you want to then cast 1, 22 or 3 into Integers then that's a different problem that requires more thought. What values are you expecting to have in the array?
", " to get rid of the spaces
"[X, 1, Test, 22, 3]" is to be converted to [X, 1, Test, 22, 3], not an array of strings.
value1, value2, value3? As is the question looks a bit ambiguous. It can be easily interpreted that they can be local variables defined beforehand, in which case this will require some eval black magic.value1,value2andvalue3. Presumably those are local variables or methods (not literals). Is that what you intend?