Find key/value pairs deep inside a hash containing an arbitrary number of nested hashes and arrays

Question

A web service is returning a hash that contains an unknown number of nested hashes, some of which contain an array, which in turn contains an unknown number of nested hashes

Answer 1

No need for monkey patching, just use Hashie gem: https://github.com/intridea/hashie#deepfind

user = {
  name: { first: 'Bob', last: 'Boberts' },
  groups: [
    { name: 'Rubyists' },
    { name: 'Open source enthusiasts' }
  ]
}

user.extend Hashie::Extensions::DeepFind

user.deep_find(:name)   #=> { first: 'Bob', last: 'Boberts' }

For arbitrary Enumerable objects, there is another extension available, DeepLocate: https://github.com/intridea/hashie#deeplocate

Answer 2

A variation of barelyknown's solution: This will find all the values for a key in a hash rather than the first match.

class Hash
  def deep_find(key, object=self, found=[])
    if object.respond_to?(:key?) && object.key?(key)
      found << object[key]
    end
    if object.is_a? Enumerable
      found << object.collect { |*a| deep_find(key, a.last) }
    end
    found.flatten.compact
  end
end

{a: [{b: 1}, {b: 2}]}.deep_find(:b) will return [1, 2]

Answer 3

I ended up using this for a small trie search I wrote:

def trie_search(str, obj=self)
  if str.length <= 1
    obj[str]
  else
    str_array = str.chars
    next_trie = obj[str_array.shift]
    next_trie ? trie_search(str_array.join, next_trie) : nil
  end
end

Note: this is just for nested hashes at the moment. Currently no array support.

Answer 4

Because Rails 5 ActionController::Parameters no longer inherits from Hash, I've had to modify the method and make it specific to parameters.

module ActionController
  class Parameters
    def deep_find(key, object=self, found=nil)
      if object.respond_to?(:key?) && object.key?(key)
        return object[key]
      elsif object.respond_to?(:each)
        object = object.to_unsafe_h if object.is_a?(ActionController::Parameters)
        object.find { |*a| found = deep_find(key, a.last) }
        return found
      end
    end
  end
end

If the key is found, it returns the value of that key, but it doesn't return an ActionController::Parameter object so Strong Parameters are not preserved.

Answer 5

I use the following code

def search_hash(hash, key)
  return hash[key] if hash.assoc(key)
  hash.delete_if{|key, value| value.class != Hash}
  new_hash = Hash.new
  hash.each_value {|values| new_hash.merge!(values)}
  unless new_hash.empty?
    search_hash(new_hash, key)
  end
end

Answer 6

Here's a simple recursive solution:

def nested_hash_value(obj,key)
  if obj.respond_to?(:key?) && obj.key?(key)
    obj[key]
  elsif obj.respond_to?(:each)
    r = nil
    obj.find{ |*a| r=nested_hash_value(a.last,key) }
    r
  end
end

h = { foo:[1,2,[3,4],{a:{bar:42}}] }
p nested_hash_value(h,:bar)
#=> 42