Hash to array conversion [closed]

Question

The following response is returned by an external API and is assigned to ret_val:

{:val1=>"add", :val2=>"delete", :val3=>"update"}
{:val1=>"add_name", :val2=>"delete_name", :val3=>"update_name"}
{:val1=>"add_city", :val2=>"delete_city", :val3=>"city"}

I want to convert ret_val into an array so that the values assigned to val1, val2, and val3 can be extracted by giving val1, val2, and val3.So basically I would like to see key and value pair of all the comma separated pairs . Expected output :

val1 : add
val2 : delete
val3:update

till the last row returned by the API. Please suggest. Note: API will always return response in above format only with duplicate key.

Answer 1

below code snippet will give you desire result:

#ret_val=calling API
ret_val.each { |x|  
x.each { |val| 
puts "#{val[0]} :#{val[1]}"
}
}

Answer 2

Updated answer: If you just want to reproduce the very same structure in JSON, you can just use Ruby's JSON module

require 'json'

ret_val = [
    { :val1 => "add", :val2 => "delete", :val3 => "update" },
    { :val1 => "add_name", :val2 => "delete_name", :val3 => "update_name" },
    { :val1 => "add_city", :val2 => "delete_city", :val3 => "update_city" }
]

puts ret_val.to_json
# => [{"val1":"add","val2":"delete","val3":"update"},{"val1":"add_name","val2":"delete_name","val3":"update_name"},{"val1":"add_city","val2":"delete_city","val3":"update_city"}]

If you need to rework the structure, you need to iterate over the hashes in the response array, for example with Array#each. You can associate a block with the function and execute the block for each entry in the array. To illustrate, let's look at my_array = ["one", "two", "three"]

my_array = ["one", "two", "three"]
my_array.each do |e|
  # e is the current entry
  puts "The current entry is '#{e}'"
end

The output would be

The current entry is 'one'
The current entry is 'two'
The current entry is 'three'

In the same way you can iterate over the hashes in the array you've got from the API and handle each hash like you want to

ret_val = ... # same as above
ret_val.each do |hash|
  # do whatever you need to do with 'hash'
end

---

What you're looking for is probably Hash#values

my_hash = {:val1=>"add", :val2=>"delete", :val3=>"update"}
my_hash.values # => ["add", "delete", "update"]

Answer 3

What the API is returning is a hash. You can access a hash value by its key.

ret_val = func()

ret_val is a hash object. To access its values

a = Array.new()
ret_val.each { |key,value| a << value }