Best way to convert strings to symbols in hash

Question

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.

Answer 1

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