Searching array of objects for item in Ruby

Question

I am trying to search through an array of objects for a value, but am having trouble getting the find_index to work. In my code below, I am trying to search for the name (joseph) in the array. Is this the best way? I want to return that object after I search and find it.

name = "joseph"

array = [{"login":"joseph","id":4,"url":"localhost/joe","description":null},
{"login":"billy","id":10,"url":"localhost/billy","description":null}]

arrayItem = array.find_index {|item| item.login == name}

puts arrayItem

Cristian Lupascu · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-03 14:44:23Z

11

Your array contains a Hash, with keys that are symbols (in hashes, key: value is a shorthand for :key => value). Therefore, you need to replace item.login with item[:login]:

name = "joseph"

array = [{"login":"joseph","id":4,"url":"localhost/joe","description":nil},
{"login":"billy","id":10,"url":"localhost/billy","description":nil}]

arrayIndex = array.find_index{ |item| item[:login] == name }

puts arrayIndex

The code above retrieves the index at which the sought object is in the array. If you want the object and not the index, use find instead of find_index:

arrayItem = array.find{ |item| item[:login] == name }

Also, note that in Ruby, null is actually called nil.

edited Sep 3, 2015 at 14:44

answered Sep 3, 2015 at 14:38

Cristian Lupascu

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2 Comments

Stefan Over a year ago

find_index returns the item's index, the OP probably wants find

Daiku Over a year ago

w0lf's solution will return the first match. If you want all matches, use select instead of find.

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