How to change hash return format for Ruby

Question

I have the following hash:

{"description":"Hello","id":"H"}`

If I type the hash in the console, I get:

{:description=>"Hello", :id=>"H"}

I would like it to return the same form mentioned first, using "description" and "id".

Is there a way to change the format in which my hash is returned?

Answer 1

You have an Hash with Symbol keys:

h = {"description": "Hello", "id": "H"}

Consider this:

({"description": "Hello", "id": "H"}) == ({"description"=> "Hello", "id"=> "H"})
#=> false

({"description": "Hello", "id": "H"}) == ({description: "Hello", id: "H"})
#=> true

Ruby just removes " when printing:

p ({"description":"Hello","id":"H"})
#=> {:description=>"Hello", :id=>"H"}

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If you want to convert keys to String, you could use pure Ruby Hash#transform_keys (or the bang version transform_keys!):

h.transform_keys &:to_s
#=> {"description"=>"Hello", "id"=>"H"}

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If a json is what you are looking for, do:

require 'json'

puts h.to_json
#=> {"description":"Hello","id":"H"}

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Consider also that:

h.to_json.class #=> String
h.class #=> Hash

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