How to change Hash values?

I'd like to replace each value in a hash with value.some_method.

For example, for given a simple hash:

{"a" => "b", "c" => "d"}` 

every value should be .upcased, so it looks like:

{"a" => "B", "c" => "D"}

I tried #collect and #map but always just get arrays back. Is there an elegant way to do this?

UPDATE

Damn, I forgot: The hash is in an instance variable which should not be changed. I need a new hash with the changed values, but would prefer not to define that variable explicitly and then loop over the hash filling it. Something like:

new_hash = hash.magic{ ... }

my_hash.each { |k, v| my_hash[k] = v.upcase } 

or, if you'd prefer to do it non-destructively, and return a new hash instead of modifying my_hash:

a_new_hash = my_hash.inject({}) { |h, (k, v)| h[k] = v.upcase; h } 

This last version has the added benefit that you could transform the keys too.

Since ruby 2.4.0 you can use native Hash#transform_values method:

hash = {"a" => "b", "c" => "d"}
new_hash = hash.transform_values(&:upcase)
# => {"a" => "B", "c" => "D"}

There is also destructive Hash#transform_values! version.

You can collect the values, and convert it from Array to Hash again.

Like this:

config = Hash[ config.collect {|k,v| [k, v.upcase] } ]

This will do it:

my_hash.each_with_object({}) { |(key, value), hash| hash[key] = value.upcase }

As opposed to inject the advantage is that you are in no need to return the hash again inside the block.

There's a method for that in ActiveSupport v4.2.0. It's called transform_values and basically just executes a block for each key-value-pair.

Since they're doing it with a each I think there's no better way than to loop through.

hash = {sample: 'gach'}

result = {}
hash.each do |key, value|
  result[key] = do_stuff(value)
end

Update:

Since Ruby 2.4.0 you can natively use #transform_values and #transform_values!.

Try this function:

h = {"a" => "b", "c" => "d"}
h.each{|i,j| j.upcase!} # now contains {"a" => "B", "c" => "D"}.

You may want to go a step further and do this on a nested hash. Certainly this happens a fair amount with Rails projects.

Here's some code to ensure a params hash is in UTF-8:

  def convert_hash hash
    hash.inject({}) do |h,(k,v)|
      if v.kind_of? String
        h[k] = to_utf8(v) 
      else
        h[k] = convert_hash(v)
      end
      h
    end      
  end    
  
  # Iconv UTF-8 helper
  # Converts strings into valid UTF-8
  #
  # @param [String] untrusted_string the string to convert to UTF-8
  # @return [String] your string in UTF-8
  def to_utf8 untrusted_string=""
    ic = Iconv.new('UTF-8//IGNORE', 'UTF-8')
    ic.iconv(untrusted_string + ' ')[0..-2]
  end  

I do something like this:

> new_hash = Hash[*original_hash.collect{|key,value| [key,value + 1]}.flatten]

This provides you with the facilities to transform the key or value via any expression also (and it's non-destructive, of course).

Ruby has the tap method (1.8.7, 1.9.3 and 2.1.0) that's very useful for stuff like this.

original_hash = { :a => 'a', :b => 'b' }
original_hash.clone.tap{ |h| h.each{ |k,v| h[k] = v.upcase } }
# => {:a=>"A", :b=>"B"}
original_hash # => {:a=>"a", :b=>"b"}

Rails-specific

In case someone only needs to call to_s method to each of the values and is not using Rails 4.2 ( which includes transform_values method link), you can do the following:

original_hash = { :a => 'a', :b => BigDecimal('23.4') }
#=> {:a=>"a", :b=>#<BigDecimal:5c03a00,'0.234E2',18(18)>}
JSON(original_hash.to_json)
#=> {"a"=>"a", "b"=>"23.4"}

Note: The use of 'json' library is required.

Note 2: This will turn keys into strings as well

If you know that the values are strings, you can call the replace method on them while in the cycle: this way you will change the value.

Altohugh this is limited to the case in which the values are strings and hence doesn't answer the question fully, I thought it can be useful to someone.

new_hash = old_hash.merge(old_hash) do |_key, value, _value|
             value.upcase
           end

# old_hash = {"a" => "b", "c" => "d"}
# new_hash = {"a" => "B", "c" => "D"}