how can I programmatically identify which keys have sub key-value-pairs in a JSON doc? [duplicate] - ruby

Question

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Flattening nested hash to a single hash with Ruby/Rails
(6 answers)
Closed 8 years ago.
I fetch a JSON document and need to programmatically "flatten" the keys for another third-party service.
What this means is, if my JSON doc comes back with the following:
{'first_name' => "Joe", 'hoffman' => {'patterns' => ['negativity', 'self-sabotage'], 'right_road' => 'happy family'}, 'mbti' => 'INTJ'}
I need to be able to know to create a "flat" key-value pair for a third-party service like this:
first_name = "Joe"
hoffman.patterns = "negativity, self-sabotage"
hoffman.right_road = "happy family"
mbti = "INTJ"
Once I know there's a sub-document, the parsing I think I have figured out just appending the sub-keys with key + '.' + "{subkey}" but right now, don't know which ones are straight key-value and which one's have sub-documents.
Question:
a) How can I parse the JSON to know which keys have sub-documents (additional key-values)?
b) Suggestions on ways to create a string from an array

Answer 1

You could also monkey patch Hash to do this on it's own like so:
class Hash
def flatten_keys(prefix=nil)
each_pair.map do |k,v|
key = [prefix,k].compact.join(".")
v.is_a?(Hash) ? v.flatten_keys(key) : [key,v.is_a?(Array) ? v.join(", ") : v]
end.flatten.each_slice(2).to_a
end
def to_flat_hash
Hash[flatten_keys]
end
end
Then it would be
require 'json'
h = JSON.parse(YOUR_JSON_RESPONSE)
#=> {'first_name' => "Joe", 'hoffman' => {'patterns' => ['negativity', 'self-sabotage'], 'right_road' => 'happy family'}, 'mbti' => 'INTJ'}
h.to_flat_hash
#=> {"first_name"=>"Joe", "hoffman.patterns"=>"negativity, self-sabotage", "hoffman.right_road"=>"happy family", "mbti"=>"INTJ"}
Will work with additional nesting too
h = {"first_name"=>"Joe", "hoffman"=>{"patterns"=>["negativity", "self-sabotage"], "right_road"=>"happy family", "wrong_road"=>{"bad_choices"=>["alcohol", "heroin"]}}, "mbti"=>"INTJ"}
h.to_flat_hash
#=> {"first_name"=>"Joe", "hoffman.patterns"=>"negativity, self-sabotage", "hoffman.right_road"=>"happy family", "hoffman.wrong_road.bad_choices"=>"alcohol, heroin", "mbti"=>"INTJ"}

Answer 2

Quick and dirty recursive proc:
# assuming you've already `JSON.parse` the incoming json into this hash:
a = {'first_name' => "Joe", 'hoffman' => {'patterns' => ['negativity', 'self-sabotage'], 'right_road' => 'happy family'}, 'mbti' => 'INTJ'}
# define a recursive proc:
flatten_keys = -> (h, prefix = "") do
#flattened_keys ||= {}
h.each do |key, value|
# Here we check if there's "sub documents" by asking if the value is a Hash
# we also pass in the name of the current prefix and key and append a . to it
if value.is_a? Hash
flatten_keys.call value, "#{prefix}#{key}."
else
# if not we concatenate the key and the prefix and add it to the #flattened_keys hash
#flattened_keys["#{prefix}#{key}"] = value
end
end
#flattened_keys
end
flattened = flatten_keys.call a
# => "first_name"=>"Joe", "hoffman.patterns"=>["negativity", "self-sabotage"], "hoffman.right_road"=>"happy family", "mbti"=>"INTJ"}
And then, to turn the arrays into strings just join them:
flattened.inject({}) do |hash, (key, value)|
value = value.join(', ') if value.is_a? Array
hash.merge! key => value
end
# => {"first_name"=>"Joe", "hoffman.patterns"=>"negativity, self-sabotage", "hoffman.right_road"=>"happy family", "mbti"=>"INTJ"}

Answer 3

Another way, inspired by this post:
def flat_hash(h,f=[],g={})
return g.update({ f=>h }) unless h.is_a? Hash
h.each { |k,r| flat_hash(r,f+[k],g) }
g
end
h = { :a => { :b => { :c => 1,
:d => 2 },
:e => 3 },
:f => 4 }
result = {}
flat_hash(h) #=> {[:a, :b, :c]=>1, [:a, :b, :d]=>2, [:a, :e]=>3, [:f]=>4}
.each{ |k, v| result[k.join('.')] = v } #=> {"a.b.c"=>1, "a.b.d"=>2, "a.e"=>3, "f"=>4}