Cast String in multi-dim array to Integer

Question

I have a variable (result) that looks like this when doing YAML::dump(result):

responseHeader: 
  status: 0
  QTime: 1
  params: 
    wt: ruby
    q: enid:(15542697739)
response: 
  numFound: 1
  start: 0
  docs: 
  - enid: "15542697739"

I want to do a conditional comparison on the enid like this:

if result["response"]["docs"]["enid"].to_i == num['1']['car']

where num['1']['car'] is an integer.

Whenever I attempt this, I get a TypeError thrown,

can't convert String into Integer
(TypeError)

even if I attempt

result["response"]["docs"]["enid"].to_i

or

Integer(result["response"]["docs"]["enid"])

How do I get my enid value converted to an integer so I can make this comparison?

Peter Cooper · Accepted Answer · 2011-04-19 01:14:21Z

2

The problem is that what's in result["response"]["docs"] is NOT a hash and you're addressing it like one. What you need in this case is result["response"]["docs"][0]["enid"]. If you want to see why, try p result["response"] to see what Ruby data structures are being used at each level. YAML can be a little misleading here even if you've been reading it a while.

answered Apr 19, 2011 at 1:14

Peter Cooper

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1 Comment

Sly Over a year ago

Great! Thanks Peter! Just right. Tried with the [0] term and that works. Hope this helps others as well!

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