How to convert a string to a hash in ruby/rails wi

Question

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• How do I convert a String object into a Hash object? 12 answers

Here is the string which needs to convert into a hash.

"{:status => {:label => 'Status', :collection => return_misc_definitions('project_status') } }"

We can not use eval because eval will execute the method return_misc_definitions('project_status') in the string. Is there pure string operation to accomplish this conversion in ruby/rails? Thanks for help.

Answer 1

As mentioned earlier, you should use eval. Your point about eval executing return_misc_definitions doesn't make sense. It will be executed either way.

h1 = {:status => {:label => 'Status', :collection => return_misc_definitions('project_status') } }
# or 
h2 = eval("{:status => {:label => 'Status', :collection => return_misc_definitions('project_status') } }")

There's no functional difference between these two lines, they produce exactly the same result.

h1 == h2 # => true

Of course, if you can, don't use string represenstation of ruby hashes. Use JSON or YAML. They're much safer (don't require eval).