Ruby: How to turn a hash into HTTP parameters?

Question

That is pretty easy with a plain hash like

{:a => "a", :b => "b"} 

which would translate into

"a=a&b=b"

But what do you do with something more complex like

{:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]} 

which should translate into

"a=a&b[0]=c&b[1]=d&b[2]=e" 

Or even worse, (what to do) with something like:

{:a => "a", :b => [{:c => "c", :d => "d"}, {:e => "e", :f => "f"}]

Thanks for the much appreciated help with that!

Answer 1

Update: This functionality was removed from the gem.

Julien, your self-answer is a good one, and I've shameless borrowed from it, but it doesn't properly escape reserved characters, and there are a few other edge cases where it breaks down.

require "addressable/uri"
uri = Addressable::URI.new
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[0]=c&b[1]=d&b[2]=e"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => [{:c => "c", :d => "d"}, {:e => "e", :f => "f"}]}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[0][c]=c&b[0][d]=d&b[1][e]=e&b[1][f]=f"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => {:c => "c", :d => "d"}}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[c]=c&b[d]=d"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => {:c => "c", :d => true}}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[c]=c&b[d]"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => {:c => "c", :d => true}, :e => []}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[c]=c&b[d]"

The gem is 'addressable'

gem install addressable

Answer 2

{:a=>"a", :b=>"b", :c=>"c"}.map{ |x,v| "#{x}=#{v}" }.reduce{|x,v| "#{x}&#{v}" }

"a=a&b=b&c=c"

Here's another way. For simple queries.

Answer 3

I like using this gem:

https://rubygems.org/gems/php_http_build_query

Sample usage:

puts PHP.http_build_query({"a"=>"b","c"=>"d","e"=>[{"hello"=>"world","bah"=>"black"},{"hello"=>"world","bah"=>"black"}]})

# a=b&c=d&e%5B0%5D%5Bbah%5D=black&e%5B0%5D%5Bhello%5D=world&e%5B1%5D%5Bbah%5D=black&e%5B1%5D%5Bhello%5D=world

Answer 4

No need to load up the bloated ActiveSupport or roll your own, you can use Rack::Utils.build_query and Rack::Utils.build_nested_query. Here's a blog post that gives a good example:

require 'rack'

Rack::Utils.build_query(
  authorization_token: "foo",
  access_level: "moderator",
  previous: "index"
)

# => "authorization_token=foo&access_level=moderator&previous=index"

It even handles arrays:

Rack::Utils.build_query( {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]} )
# => "a=a&b=c&b=d&b=e"
Rack::Utils.parse_query _
# => {"a"=>"a", "b"=>["c", "d", "e"]}

Or the more difficult nested stuff:

Rack::Utils.build_nested_query( {:a => "a", :b => [{:c => "c", :d => "d"}, {:e => "e", :f => "f"}] } )
# => "a=a&b[][c]=c&b[][d]=d&b[][e]=e&b[][f]=f"
Rack::Utils.parse_nested_query _
# => {"a"=>"a", "b"=>[{"c"=>"c", "d"=>"d", "e"=>"e", "f"=>"f"}]}

Answer 5

Here's a short and sweet one liner if you only need to support simple ASCII key/value query strings:

hash = {"foo" => "bar", "fooz" => 123}
# => {"foo"=>"bar", "fooz"=>123}
query_string = hash.to_a.map { |x| "#{x[0]}=#{x[1]}" }.join("&")
# => "foo=bar&fooz=123"

Answer 6

require 'uri'

class Hash
  def to_query_hash(key)
    reduce({}) do |h, (k, v)|
      new_key = key.nil? ? k : "#{key}[#{k}]"
      v = Hash[v.each_with_index.to_a.map(&:reverse)] if v.is_a?(Array)
      if v.is_a?(Hash)
        h.merge!(v.to_query_hash(new_key))
      else
        h[new_key] = v
      end
      h
    end
  end

  def to_query(key = nil)
    URI.encode_www_form(to_query_hash(key))
  end
end

2.4.2 :019 > {:a => "a", :b => "b"}.to_query_hash(nil)
 => {:a=>"a", :b=>"b"}

2.4.2 :020 > {:a => "a", :b => "b"}.to_query
 => "a=a&b=b"

2.4.2 :021 > {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}.to_query_hash(nil)
 => {:a=>"a", "b[0]"=>"c", "b[1]"=>"d", "b[2]"=>"e"}

2.4.2 :022 > {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}.to_query
 => "a=a&b%5B0%5D=c&b%5B1%5D=d&b%5B2%5D=e"