How would one write the following array in Ruby?
$itemsarray = array();
$itemsarray["items"]['0']['product_id'] = 1;
$itemsarray["items"]['0']['brand_id'] = 1;
$itemsarray["items"]['0']['color_id'] = 1;
$itemsarray["items"]['1']['product_id'] = 2;
$itemsarray["items"]['1']['brand_id'] = 3;
$itemsarray["items"]['1']['color_id'] = 5;
It's very easy. Here is what you will need:
itemsarray = { 'items' => [ { 'product_id' => 1, 'brand_id' => 1, 'color_id' => 1 } ] }
Now a little bit of explanation...
In Ruby to represent an associative array we use Hashes. Ex.: { 'a' => 1, 'b' => 2 } == array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2).
So at the top level you have a hash containing the key items and it's value is an array of all the items. The first item is a hash again, having the product options as keys with their corresponding values.
What is a bit better way to write this is to use symbols instead of strings for the keys, as this will introduce a slight memory optimisation. Here is an example:
itemsarray = { :items => [ { :product_id => 1, :brand_id => 1, :color_id => 1 } ] }
There is also a shorthand syntax where :abc => 1 is equivalent to: abc: 1, so the above line would look like:
itemsarray = { items: [ { product_id: 1, brand_id: 1, color_id: 1 } ] }
UPDATE
With multiple items, here is how it would look like:
itemsarray = { items: [
{ product_id: 1, brand_id: 1, color_id: 1 },
{ product_id: 2, brand_id: 3, color_id: 5 }
]}
Or a dynamic approach:
itemsarray[:items].push( { product_id: 2, brand_id: 3, color_id: 5 } )
itemsarray={ items:[{product_id:1, brand_id:1, color_id:1} ]}
