How can I convert a string in my JSON file into a Ruby hash?

Question

I'm working getting tweets from the Twitter API in my Rails backend. I'm able to create tweets in my db and then render the tweets as a JSON. But part of the tweet is still showing up as a string. How can I convert this specific part into a Ruby hash so that I can access the key:value pairs?

I've tried .serializable_hash, .hash, to_json, but either the data type is wrong (needs to be an array) or it just adds more \ characters
.strip, .split, .gsub also didn't work
when I puts the string, it looks like a hash, but I'm not able to save that output

This is how the json is being rendered:

   "media": [
      "{\"id\"=>1159941035461529600, \"id_str\"=>\"1159941035461529600\", \"indices\"=>[62, 85], \"media_url\"=>\"http://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBjwOeMVUAAVOia.jpg\", \"media_url_https\"=>\"https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EBjwOeMVUAAVOia.jpg\", \"url\"=>\"https://t.asdco/mFwUSlGEpv\", \"display_url\"=>\"pic.twitter.com/mFwUSlGEpv\", \"expanded_url\"=>\"https://twitter.com/CommonBlackGirI/status/1159941046161170432/photo/1\", \"type\"=>\"photo\", \"sizes\"=>{\"thumb\"=>{\"w\"=>150, \"h\"=>150, \"resize\"=>\"crop\"}, \"medium\"=>{\"w\"=>1122, \"h\"=>819, \"resize\"=>\"fit\"}, \"large\"=>{\"w\"=>1122, \"h\"=>819, \"resize\"=>\"fit\"}, \"small\"=>{\"w\"=>680, \"h\"=>496, \"resize\"=>\"fit\"}}}"
    ]

I tried to create a method in the serializer file, but that didn't work because it's just string, not a traversable hash

  def media_url
    tweet = self.object
    tweet.media[0]
  end

I'd like to convert the string above into a Ruby hash so that I can get the media_url for each tweet

That's a Ruby Hash being emitted raw instead of as a JSON object. Try to_json on it when rendering. media_url doesn't render, but something else does. — tadman
– tadman, Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 19:46
I tried JSON.parse, got this kind of error: JSON::ParserError (767: unexpected token at '{"screen_name"=>"KimberlyNFoster", "name"=>"Kimberly Nicole Foster", "id"=>142116606, "id_str"=>"142116606", "indices"=>[0, 16]}') — Jasterix
– Jasterix, Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 19:51
to_json added more "\" => "\"{\\\"screen_name\\\"=\\u003e\\\"KimberlyNFoster\\\", \\\"name\\\"=\\u003e\\\"Kimberly Nicole Foster\\\", \\\"id\\\"=\\u003e142116606, \\\"id_str\\\"=\\u003e\\\"142116606\\\", \\\"indices\\\"=\\u003e[0, 16]}\"" — Jasterix
– Jasterix, Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 19:53
How did you end up with that? The object at h[:"media"][0] is not valid json ( it looks like a Hash converted to a String via to_s) If you need to convert a Hash to JSON the method is to_json but you should explain how this is being generated in the first place or just use the twitter gem and not worry as much about the implementation — engineersmnky
– engineersmnky, Commented Aug 12, 2019 at 20:40

asimhashmi · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-12 20:43:32Z

4

I think something like this would help:

def media_url
  tweet = self.object
  JSON.parse(tweet.media[0].gsub('=>', ':'))["media_url"]
end

You need to replace => with : in order for JSON.parse to work

Or

To get the complete hash you can use a more generic method like media:

def media
  tweet = self.object
  JSON.parse(tweet.media[0].gsub('=>', ':'))
end

answered Aug 12, 2019 at 20:43

asimhashmi

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