Converting array/hash to string and converting that string back to array/hash in ruby

Question

I had this array lets say,

array = [{'key' => 0},1]

so now array[0]['key'] has value 0. When I convert it to string like this:

array.to_s

Now the array is not an array its a string which is like this:

"[{'key' => 0},1]"

If I do array[0] now, it will output [

I want to convert this back to array so that I can use array[0]['key'] again.

Full Code:

array = [{'key' => 0},1]
array = array.to_s
puts array[0]['key'] #Should output 0 but it does not output anything

The thing is that I have already saved stuff like that in the database, so now I need to use that stuff back, so the only way is to parse the saved string (which was actually an array).

Possible duplicate of How do I convert a Ruby string with brackets to an array? — Ilya
– Ilya, Commented Jun 3, 2016 at 11:49

Patrick De Marta · Accepted Answer · 2016-06-03 11:28:43Z

3

string = "[{'key' => 0},1]"
array = eval string
array[0]['key']  # => 0

answered Jun 3, 2016 at 11:28

Patrick De Marta

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4 Comments

Ilya Over a year ago

using eval in this case is a bad practice.

Patrick De Marta Over a year ago

I see, thank you for the warning, could you elaborate more please?

Ilya Over a year ago

You can read this question

user1735921 Over a year ago

@Ilya well I just need to correct my database so I guess its fine. I am not using this on permanent basis.

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