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rubyjsonrest-client

Ruby JSON response weird escaped characters

confused here. First time using RestClient over HTTParty. But when I make a request, I'm getting a 

response = RestClient.get(url, :content_type => :json, :accept => :json, :'authorization' => token)

=> "{\"items\":[{\"tag\":\"#R0YL2RP\"},{\"tag\":\"#8U9PVV0R\"}]}"

So what's up with all the \? And how do I get rid of them?

Solution

  • You got the response printed to the console, as the result of evaluation of a REPL expression. This display is printed using #inspect, which, for strings, gives the representation of the string itself (so you can just plop it into the code); in this representation, backslashes and double quotes are escaped:

    "foo" + "bar"
#  => "foobar"       - note the quotes

    If you print the string itself, you don't get it escaped:

    puts "foo" + "bar"
# foobar            - note: no quotes
#  => nil           - return value of `puts`

    If your string contains quotes:

    puts "\""
# "
#  => nil

"\""
#  => "\""

    Your JSON is fine - just getting escaped in printing. Do puts response instead of just response and see.