How can I access hashes within an array?

Question

I'm trying to use Nokogiri to grab some data from an XML file, then save it into the database.

The code I'm using is:

def self.import_from_feed(feed)
 doc = Nokogiri::XML(open(feed))

 @products = doc.xpath('/merchantProductFeed/merchant/prod').map do |i| 
   {
     'name' => i.xpath('text/name').inner_text,
     'link' => i.xpath('uri/mLink').inner_text, 
     'description' => i.xpath('text/desc').inner_text,
     'price' => i.xpath('price/buynow').inner_text
   }
 end
end

In Rails' console, I ran Products.import_from_feed(myfeedgoeshere) and got:

[{"price"=>"8.00", "name"=>"BASIC GIRL BOXER", "description"=>"Boxer shorts Elasticated waist with Bench logo Button fly", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/womenswear/underwear/basic-girl-boxer/GY001X/"}, {"price"=>"10.00", "name"=>"CMTL  PK SPORTY SOCKS", "description"=>"Ankle sockBench logo on sole of each sockContrasting stripe around ankle", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/womenswear/underwear/cmtl03593-3-pk-sporty-socks/BK014-SK034/"}, {"price"=>"12.00", "name"=>"A PK STRING UNDERWEAR", "description"=>"Plain thong Bench logo along waistband Bench tag on front", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/womenswear/underwear/a4771-3pk-string-underwear/PK023-BK001-WH001/"}, {"price"=>"8.00", "name"=>"BASIC GIRL BOXER", "description"=>"Boxer shorts Elasticated waist with Bench logo Button fly", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/womenswear/underwear/basic-girl-boxer/WH001/"}, {"price"=>"45.00", "name"=>"OSPREY TRAINER", "description"=>"Lace up trainers Bench logo on tongue and back of heelBench logo on end of trainer", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/menswear/footwear/osprey-trainer/WH001-BL081/"}, {"price"=>"45.00", "name"=>"OSPREY TRAINER", "description"=>"Lace up trainers Bench logo on tongue and back of heelBench logo on said of trainer", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/menswear/footwear/osprey-trainer/WH001-GR128/"}, {"price"=>"90.00", "name"=>"META TRENCH", "description"=>"Vintage look leather bootLace upFabric sidesPull on tab on heel", "link"=>"http://www.bench.co.uk/womenswear/footwear/meta-trench/BK001/"}]
(^ Truncated)

Can someone tell me how I can access elements of the array? Loop through so I can get @products.price, @products.description etc?

Edit: I've tried @products[0], products[0], I've tried printing key/value pairs without any luck.

I'm not asking you to do all the work, I think it's that there are a few concepts at work here - enough to keep me hitting brick walls.

Part 2: Extra Credit!

Based on the selected answer, this should work, right?

 @products.each do |h|
   h.save
 end

I get:

NoMethodError: undefined method `save' for #<Hash:0x10388c7d8>

buruzaemon · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-26 20:47:24Z

4

Since each element of @products is a hash, you could do this:

@products.each do |h|
  puts "#{h['price']}, #{h['description']}"
end

edited Apr 26, 2011 at 20:47

answered Apr 26, 2011 at 20:15

buruzaemon

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5 Comments

Geoff Wright Over a year ago

Thanks for your answer, just editing now. For clarification - theres a } missing after price, right?

Geoff Wright Over a year ago

It worked! Thank you so much! I can't vote up your answer (rep <15), I'll come back to it when I can.

buruzaemon Over a year ago

@Geoff, thanks for catching the error. I shouldn't try to give answers before my first cup of coffee!

Geoff Wright Over a year ago

I have a follow up if you wouldn't mind. The way you've presented the data means it can't be stored in the db, right? You convert it to a string almost on the fly? This should work, right? (added to question)

buruzaemon Over a year ago

Assuming you have a model called Product, you would need to create/save a new Product with the given values in each hash.

skaz · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-26 20:16:11Z

2

Didn't test this but it looks like you have an array of hashes, so first, loop through the array:

@products.each do |product_hash|

Then, for each item (and each item is a hash), get the elements you want: product_hash[:price] or product_hash.price

@products.each do |product_hash|
#Do something with the price
product_hash[:price]
#Do other things...
end

answered Apr 26, 2011 at 20:16

skaz

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1 Comment

Geoff Wright Over a year ago

Didn't get a chance to look as got it fixed from above, but thanks very much for taking the time to help!

sufinsha · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-16 08:57:44Z

1

If you like to save those values in a database table say,Product, then just do as below:

@products.each do |product|
    prod = Product.new
    prod.name = product["name"]
    prod.price = product["price"]
    prod.description = product["description"] 
    prod.save
end

you got an error regarding the save keyword because you didn't perform any database operatopn.

answered Jan 16, 2013 at 8:57

sufinsha

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