Best way to convert strings to symbols in hash

What's the (fastest/cleanest/straightforward) way to convert all keys in a hash from strings to symbols in Ruby?

This would be handy when parsing YAML.

my_hash = YAML.load_file('yml')

I'd like to be able to use:

my_hash[:key] 

Rather than:

my_hash['key']

Here's a better method, if you're using Rails:

params.symbolize_keys

The end.

If you're not, just rip off their code (it's also in the link):

myhash.keys.each do |key|
  myhash[(key.to_sym rescue key) || key] = myhash.delete(key)
end

In Ruby >= 2.5 (docs) you can use:

my_hash.transform_keys(&:to_sym)

Using older Ruby version? Here is a one-liner that will copy the hash into a new one with the keys symbolized:

my_hash = my_hash.inject({}){|memo,(k,v)| memo[k.to_sym] = v; memo}

With Rails you can use:

my_hash.symbolize_keys
my_hash.deep_symbolize_keys 

For the specific case of YAML in Ruby, if the keys begin with ':', they will be automatically interned as symbols.

require 'yaml'
require 'pp'
yaml_str = "
connections:


host: host1.example.com
port: 10000
host: host2.example.com
port: 20000
"
yaml_sym = "
:connections:
:host: host1.example.com
:port: 10000
:host: host2.example.com
:port: 20000
"
pp yaml_str = YAML.load(yaml_str)
puts yaml_str.keys.first.class
pp yaml_sym = YAML.load(yaml_sym)
puts yaml_sym.keys.first.class

Output:

/opt/ruby-1.8.6-p287/bin/ruby ~/test.rb
{"connections"=>
[{"port"=>10000, "host"=>"host1.example.com"},
{"port"=>20000, "host"=>"host2.example.com"}]}
String
{:connections=>
[{:port=>10000, :host=>"host1.example.com"},
{:port=>20000, :host=>"host2.example.com"}]}
Symbol

if you're using Rails, it is much simpler - you can use a HashWithIndifferentAccess and access the keys both as String and as Symbols:

my_hash.with_indifferent_access 

see also:

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/HashWithIndifferentAccess.html

---

Or you can use the awesome "Facets of Ruby" Gem, which contains a lot of extensions to Ruby Core and Standard Library classes.

  require 'facets'
  > {'some' => 'thing', 'foo' => 'bar'}.symbolize_keys
    =>  {:some=>"thing", :foo=>"bar}

see also: http://rubyworks.github.io/rubyfaux/?doc=http://rubyworks.github.io/facets/docs/facets-2.9.3/core.json#api-class-Hash

Even more terse:

Hash[my_hash.map{|(k,v)| [k.to_sym,v]}]

Since Ruby 2.5.0 you can use Hash#transform_keys or Hash#transform_keys!.

{'a' => 1, 'b' => 2}.transform_keys(&:to_sym) #=> {:a => 1, :b => 2}

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/Hash.html#method-i-symbolize_keys

hash = { 'name' => 'Rob', 'age' => '28' }
hash.symbolize_keys
# => { name: "Rob", age: "28" }

Here's a way to deep symbolize an object

def symbolize(obj)
    return obj.inject({}){|memo,(k,v)| memo[k.to_sym] =  symbolize(v); memo} if obj.is_a? Hash
    return obj.inject([]){|memo,v    | memo           << symbolize(v); memo} if obj.is_a? Array
    return obj
end

If you are using json, and want to use it as a hash, in core Ruby you can do it:

json_obj = JSON.parse(json_str, symbolize_names: true)

symbolize_names: If set to true, returns symbols for the names (keys) in a JSON object. Otherwise strings are returned. Strings are the default.

Doc: Json#parse symbolize_names

I really like the Mash gem.

you can do mash['key'], or mash[:key], or mash.key

params.symbolize_keys will also work. This method turns hash keys into symbols and returns a new hash.

A modification to @igorsales answer

class Object
  def deep_symbolize_keys
    return self.inject({}){|memo,(k,v)| memo[k.to_sym] = v.deep_symbolize_keys; memo} if self.is_a? Hash
    return self.inject([]){|memo,v    | memo           << v.deep_symbolize_keys; memo} if self.is_a? Array
    return self
  end
end

In Rails you can use:

{'g'=> 'a', 2 => {'v' => 'b', 'x' => { 'z' => 'c'}}}.deep_symbolize_keys!

Converts to:

{:g=>"a", 2=>{:v=>"b", :x=>{:z=>"c"}}}

So many answers here, but the one method rails function is hash.symbolize_keys

This is my one liner for nested hashes

def symbolize_keys(hash)
  hash.each_with_object({}) { |(k, v), h| h[k.to_sym] = v.is_a?(Hash) ? symbolize_keys(v) : v }
end

In case the reason you need to do this is because your data originally came from JSON, you could skip any of this parsing by just passing in the :symbolize_names option upon ingesting JSON.

No Rails required and works with Ruby >1.9

JSON.parse(my_json, :symbolize_names => true)

You could be lazy, and wrap it in a lambda:

my_hash = YAML.load_file('yml')
my_lamb = lambda { |key| my_hash[key.to_s] }

my_lamb[:a] == my_hash['a'] #=> true

But this would only work for reading from the hash - not writing.

To do that, you could use Hash#merge

my_hash = Hash.new { |h,k| h[k] = h[k.to_s] }.merge(YAML.load_file('yml'))

The init block will convert the keys one time on demand, though if you update the value for the string version of the key after accessing the symbol version, the symbol version won't be updated.

irb> x = { 'a' => 1, 'b' => 2 }
#=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2}
irb> y = Hash.new { |h,k| h[k] = h[k.to_s] }.merge(x)
#=> {"a"=>1, "b"=>2}
irb> y[:a]  # the key :a doesn't exist for y, so the init block is called
#=> 1
irb> y
#=> {"a"=>1, :a=>1, "b"=>2}
irb> y[:a]  # the key :a now exists for y, so the init block is isn't called
#=> 1
irb> y['a'] = 3
#=> 3
irb> y
#=> {"a"=>3, :a=>1, "b"=>2}

You could also have the init block not update the hash, which would protect you from that kind of error, but you'd still be vulnerable to the opposite - updating the symbol version wouldn't update the string version:

irb> q = { 'c' => 4, 'd' => 5 }
#=> {"c"=>4, "d"=>5}
irb> r = Hash.new { |h,k| h[k.to_s] }.merge(q)
#=> {"c"=>4, "d"=>5}
irb> r[:c] # init block is called
#=> 4
irb> r
#=> {"c"=>4, "d"=>5}
irb> r[:c] # init block is called again, since this key still isn't in r
#=> 4
irb> r[:c] = 7
#=> 7
irb> r
#=> {:c=>7, "c"=>4, "d"=>5}

So the thing to be careful of with these is switching between the two key forms. Stick with one.

Would something like the following work?

new_hash = Hash.new
my_hash.each { |k, v| new_hash[k.to_sym] = v }

It'll copy the hash, but you won't care about that most of the time. There's probably a way to do it without copying all the data.

a shorter one-liner fwiw:

my_hash.inject({}){|h,(k,v)| h.merge({ k.to_sym => v}) }

How about this:

my_hash = HashWithIndifferentAccess.new(YAML.load_file('yml'))

# my_hash['key'] => "val"
# my_hash[:key]  => "val"

This is for people who uses mruby and do not have any symbolize_keys method defined:

class Hash
  def symbolize_keys!
    self.keys.each do |k|
      if self[k].is_a? Hash
        self[k].symbolize_keys!
      end
      if k.is_a? String
        raise RuntimeError, "Symbolizing key '#{k}' means overwrite some data (key :#{k} exists)" if self[k.to_sym]
        self[k.to_sym] = self[k]
        self.delete(k)
      end
    end
    return self
  end
end

The method:

• symbolizes only keys that are String
• if symbolize a string means to lose some informations (overwrite part of hash) raise a RuntimeError
• symbolize also recursively contained hashes
• return the symbolized hash
• works in place!

The array we want to change.

strings = ["HTML", "CSS", "JavaScript", "Python", "Ruby"]

Make a new variable as an empty array so we can ".push" the symbols in.

symbols = [ ]

Here's where we define a method with a block.

strings.each {|x| symbols.push(x.intern)}

End of code.

So this is probably the most straightforward way to convert strings to symbols in your array(s) in Ruby. Make an array of strings then make a new variable and set the variable to an empty array. Then select each element in the first array you created with the ".each" method. Then use a block code to ".push" all of the elements in your new array and use ".intern or .to_sym" to convert all the elements to symbols.

Symbols are faster because they save more memory within your code and you can only use them once. Symbols are most commonly used for keys in hash which is great. I'm the not the best ruby programmer but this form of code helped me a lot.If anyone knows a better way please share and you can use this method for hash too!

If you would like vanilla ruby solution and as me do not have access to ActiveSupport here is deep symbolize solution (very similar to previous ones)

    def deep_convert(element)
      return element.collect { |e| deep_convert(e) } if element.is_a?(Array)
      return element.inject({}) { |sh,(k,v)| sh[k.to_sym] = deep_convert(v); sh } if element.is_a?(Hash)
      element
    end

Starting on Psych 3.0 you can add the symbolize_names: option

`Psych.load("---\n foo: bar")

=> {"foo"=>"bar"}`

`Psych.load("---\n foo: bar", symbolize_names: true)

=> {:foo=>"bar"}`

Note: if you have a lower Psych version than 3.0 symbolize_names: will be silently ignored.

My Ubuntu 18.04 includes it out of the box with ruby 2.5.1p57

ruby-1.9.2-p180 :001 > h = {'aaa' => 1, 'bbb' => 2}
 => {"aaa"=>1, "bbb"=>2} 
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :002 > Hash[h.map{|a| [a.first.to_sym, a.last]}]
 => {:aaa=>1, :bbb=>2}

This is not exactly a one-liner, but it turns all string keys into symbols, also the nested ones:

def recursive_symbolize_keys(my_hash)
  case my_hash
  when Hash
    Hash[
      my_hash.map do |key, value|
        [ key.respond_to?(:to_sym) ? key.to_sym : key, recursive_symbolize_keys(value) ]
      end
    ]
  when Enumerable
    my_hash.map { |value| recursive_symbolize_keys(value) }
  else
    my_hash
  end
end

I like this one-liner, when I'm not using Rails, because then I don't have to make a second hash and hold two sets of data while I'm processing it:

my_hash = { "a" => 1, "b" => "string", "c" => true }

my_hash.keys.each { |key| my_hash[key.to_sym] = my_hash.delete(key) }

my_hash
=> {:a=>1, :b=>"string", :c=>true}

Hash#delete returns the value of the deleted key

Facets' Hash#deep_rekey is also a good option, especially:

• if you find use for other sugar from facets in your project,
• if you prefer code readability over cryptical one-liners.

Sample:

require 'facets/hash/deep_rekey'
my_hash = YAML.load_file('yml').deep_rekey

In ruby I find this to be the most simple and easy to understand way to turn string keys in hashes to symbols :

my_hash.keys.each { |key| my_hash[key.to_sym] = my_hash.delete(key)}

For each key in the hash we call delete on it which removes it from the hash (also delete returns the value associated with the key that was deleted) and we immediately set this equal to the symbolized key.

Similar to previous solutions but written a bit differently.

• This allows for a hash that is nested and/or has arrays.

• Get conversion of keys to a string as a bonus.

• Code does not mutate the hash been passed in.

   module HashUtils
     def symbolize_keys(hash)
       transformer_function = ->(key) { key.to_sym }
       transform_keys(hash, transformer_function)
     end
  
     def stringify_keys(hash)
       transformer_function = ->(key) { key.to_s }
       transform_keys(hash, transformer_function)
     end
  
     def transform_keys(obj, transformer_function)
       case obj
       when Array
         obj.map{|value| transform_keys(value, transformer_function)}
       when Hash
         obj.each_with_object({}) do |(key, value), hash|
           hash[transformer_function.call(key)] = transform_keys(value, transformer_function)
         end
       else
         obj
       end
     end
   end
  

symbolize_keys recursively for any hash:

class Hash
  def symbolize_keys
    self.is_a?(Hash) ? Hash[ self.map { |k,v| [k.respond_to?(:to_sym) ? k.to_sym : k, v.is_a?(Hash) ? v.symbolize_keys : v] } ] : self
  end
end