Ruby: How to turn a hash into HTTP parameters?

Question

That is pretty easy with a plain hash like

{:a => \"a\", :b => \"b\"} 

which would translate into

\"a=a&b=b\"
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Answer 1

{:a=>"a", :b=>"b", :c=>"c"}.map{ |x,v| "#{x}=#{v}" }.reduce{|x,v| "#{x}&#{v}" }

"a=a&b=b&c=c"

Here's another way. For simple queries.

Answer 2

Steal from Merb:

# File merb/core_ext/hash.rb, line 87
def to_params
  params = ''
  stack = []

  each do |k, v|
    if v.is_a?(Hash)
      stack << [k,v]
    else
      params << "#{k}=#{v}&"
    end
  end

  stack.each do |parent, hash|
    hash.each do |k, v|
      if v.is_a?(Hash)
        stack << ["#{parent}[#{k}]", v]
      else
        params << "#{parent}[#{k}]=#{v}&"
      end
    end
  end

  params.chop! # trailing &
  params
end

See http://noobkit.com/show/ruby/gems/development/merb/hash/to_params.html

Answer 3

require 'uri'

class Hash
  def to_query_hash(key)
    reduce({}) do |h, (k, v)|
      new_key = key.nil? ? k : "#{key}[#{k}]"
      v = Hash[v.each_with_index.to_a.map(&:reverse)] if v.is_a?(Array)
      if v.is_a?(Hash)
        h.merge!(v.to_query_hash(new_key))
      else
        h[new_key] = v
      end
      h
    end
  end

  def to_query(key = nil)
    URI.encode_www_form(to_query_hash(key))
  end
end

2.4.2 :019 > {:a => "a", :b => "b"}.to_query_hash(nil)
 => {:a=>"a", :b=>"b"}

2.4.2 :020 > {:a => "a", :b => "b"}.to_query
 => "a=a&b=b"

2.4.2 :021 > {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}.to_query_hash(nil)
 => {:a=>"a", "b[0]"=>"c", "b[1]"=>"d", "b[2]"=>"e"}

2.4.2 :022 > {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}.to_query
 => "a=a&b%5B0%5D=c&b%5B1%5D=d&b%5B2%5D=e"

Answer 4

2.6.3 :001 > hash = {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}
=> {:a=>"a", :b=>["c", "d", "e"]}
2.6.3 :002 > hash.to_a.map { |x| "#{x[0]}=#{x[1].class == Array ? x[1].join(",") : x[1]}" 
}.join("&")
=> "a=a&b=c,d,e"

Answer 5

The best approach it is to use Hash.to_params which is the one working fine with arrays.

{a: 1, b: [1,2,3]}.to_param
"a=1&b[]=1&b[]=2&b[]=3"

Answer 6

If you are using Ruby 1.9.2 or later, you can use URI.encode_www_form if you don't need arrays.

E.g. (from the Ruby docs in 1.9.3):

URI.encode_www_form([["q", "ruby"], ["lang", "en"]])
#=> "q=ruby&lang=en"
URI.encode_www_form("q" => "ruby", "lang" => "en")
#=> "q=ruby&lang=en"
URI.encode_www_form("q" => ["ruby", "perl"], "lang" => "en")
#=> "q=ruby&q=perl&lang=en"
URI.encode_www_form([["q", "ruby"], ["q", "perl"], ["lang", "en"]])
#=> "q=ruby&q=perl&lang=en"

You'll notice that array values are not set with key names containing [] like we've all become used to in query strings. The spec that encode_www_form uses is in accordance with the HTML5 definition of application/x-www-form-urlencoded data.