How to convert a serialized array string to an array?

Question

I have this string :

temp = "["minutes", "hours"]"

If I do this:

temp[1..-2].split(", ")

I get an array of 2 elements like this:

[0] = ""minutes""
[1] = ""hours""

How can I avoid to have double quotes?

That looks like it came from JSON. Perhaps you ought to use a JSON parser? — Michael Berkowski, Mar 03 '13 at 16:03
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5410682/parsing-a-json-string-in-ruby — Michael Berkowski, Mar 03 '13 at 16:06
It's actually a serialized array I stored as string in a sql hash, so I get the first string. Indeed it looks like JSON but I'd rather not user a JSON gem for this piece of code. — code-gijoe, Mar 03 '13 at 16:07
I used https://github.com/ohler55/oj since I already had the dependency in my project — code-gijoe, Mar 03 '13 at 16:40

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 03 '13 at 16:06

3

Use the JSON parser :

JSON.parse(your_array)

answered Mar 03 '13 at 16:06

Intrepidd

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 03 '13 at 16:22

2

One more:

the_string.scan(/\"(\w+)\"/).flatten
 => ["minutes", "hours"]

answered Mar 03 '13 at 16:22

forker

Alfonso · Answer 3 · 2013-03-03T16:21:32.060

1

Just do:

temp.gsub("\"", "")[1..-2].split(", ")

Or, once you have the array with double quotes on each element:

temp.map{|e| e.squeeze("̣\"")}

edited Mar 03 '13 at 16:21

answered Mar 03 '13 at 16:14

Alfonso

3 Answers3