convert Javascript Object to a Ruby Hash

Question

I have a javascript object of this form

 obj = "[
   {
     title: "Sean Kingston1",
     duration: parseInt("71", 10),
   },
   {
     title: "Sean Kingston2",
     duration: parseInt("71", 10),
   },
 ]"

is there a way to convert this to a ruby hash ?

I tried using JSON.parse and JSON.load
both of them throw

 JSON::ParserError: lexical error: invalid string in json text.
                               {   title: "Sean Kingston1
                 (right here) ------^

Is there a generic solution or should I use regex and then construct the hash in ruby ?

Deleting your old question and creating a new one doesn't change the fact that what you have is not valid JSON. — Andrew Marshall
– Andrew Marshall, Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 8:43
@andrew i did change the question its a javascript object and that is what i get from the server... do u know an answer to the question ?? — vireshas
– vireshas, Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 9:10
my bad,i didnt notice! what do u think i shld do here ? i will probably use reqex and convert all the title and duration to "title" and "duration".. is there a generic solution ? — vireshas
– vireshas, Commented Mar 6, 2012 at 9:19

vireshas · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-06 10:26:47Z

4

ruby 1.9 supports hash of this kind which resembles a javascript object

 obj = "[
  {
   title: "Sean Kingston1",
   duration: "71",
  },
  {
   title: "Sean Kingston2",
   duration: "71",
  },
 ]"

to convert this into a ruby hash

 eval(obj)

edited Mar 6, 2012 at 10:26

answered Mar 6, 2012 at 10:21

vireshas

8166 silver badges19 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

5 Comments

kirilloid Over a year ago

Actually you may need to have numbers not quoted. At least this is allowed even in JSON (which has even more strictly syntax)

vireshas Over a year ago

@kirilloid yup i will do it right away, thank u :) actually i get this Js object by scraping a site and my scraper is written in ruby!

Benjamin Manns Over a year ago

Be careful when evaling code from random websites!

vireshas Over a year ago

I found my own answer when I was trying to build a Ruby Map out of this data a0.awsstatic.com/pricing/1/ec2/linux-od.min.js :-)

vireshas Over a year ago

eval RestClient.get("a0.awsstatic.com/pricing/1/ec2/linux-od.min.js").match(/…\:([.*])/)[1]

kirilloid · Accepted Answer · 2012-03-06 10:19:34Z

2

This is not a JSON. Actually, JSON is not the same as code, could be interpreted by javascript and evaluated to object.

JSON itself allows only static values (no parseInt) and any keys should be quoted as well.

[{
    "title": "Sean Kingston1",
    "duration": 71
 },
 {
    "title": "Sean Kingston2",
    "duration": 71
 }]

Using regexes and such things ain't good. You'd better just format JSON properly.

Ok, if you're not able to modify that input, you may solve a problem for this particular input with following regexpes:

/^\s*(\w+)\s*:/, '"\1":';
/:\s*parseInt\("(\d+)"\,\s*10)/, ': \1';

but for any variation in input you'll need to add more and more regexpes.

Generally, in order to interpret javascript you need to ... interpret javascript.

This is possible via installing some js Engine, like Rhino or V8 and binding it to Ruby.

edited Mar 6, 2012 at 10:19

answered Mar 6, 2012 at 8:22

kirilloid

14.4k6 gold badges42 silver badges54 bronze badges

7 Comments

vireshas Over a year ago

the javascript code what i have is not under my control :( i am scraping a site..

vireshas Over a year ago

i was very careful to not to use the word JSON , i have a javascript object of that kind.. now how do i convert it to hash ? is their a solution or shld i use regex ??

kirilloid Over a year ago

Ideally, in order to parse such code, you need to have full javascript interpreter in order to evaluate any input into objects, hashes or somewhat (I'm not familiar with Ruby).

vireshas Over a year ago

i did something like this replaced parseInt("","") by the number and called eval(obj) it worked :)

kirilloid Over a year ago

Hmm. You may call eval for js code? Eval isn't good thing, but will work here.

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

convert Javascript Object to a Ruby Hash

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

7 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

5 Comments

7 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related