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\"
<         


        

Answer 1

class Hash
  def to_params
    params = ''
    stack = []

    each do |k, v|
      if v.is_a?(Hash)
        stack << [k,v]
      elsif v.is_a?(Array)
        stack << [k,Hash.from_array(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! 
    params
  end

  def self.from_array(array = [])
    h = Hash.new
    array.size.times do |t|
      h[t] = array[t]
    end
    h
  end

end

Answer 2

Here's a short and sweet one liner if you only need to support simple ASCII key/value query strings:

hash = {"foo" => "bar", "fooz" => 123}
# => {"foo"=>"bar", "fooz"=>123}
query_string = hash.to_a.map { |x| "#{x[0]}=#{x[1]}" }.join("&")
# => "foo=bar&fooz=123"

Answer 3

For basic, non-nested hashes, Rails/ActiveSupport has Object#to_query.

>> {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}.to_query
=> "a=a&b%5B%5D=c&b%5B%5D=d&b%5B%5D=e"
>> CGI.unescape({:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}.to_query)
=> "a=a&b[]=c&b[]=d&b[]=e"

http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/Object.html#method-i-to_query

Answer 4

I know this is an old question, but I just wanted to post this bit of code as I could not find a simple gem to do just this task for me.

module QueryParams

  def self.encode(value, key = nil)
    case value
    when Hash  then value.map { |k,v| encode(v, append_key(key,k)) }.join('&')
    when Array then value.map { |v| encode(v, "#{key}[]") }.join('&')
    when nil   then ''
    else            
      "#{key}=#{CGI.escape(value.to_s)}" 
    end
  end

  private

  def self.append_key(root_key, key)
    root_key.nil? ? key : "#{root_key}[#{key.to_s}]"
  end
end

Rolled up as gem here: https://github.com/simen/queryparams

Answer 5

Update: This functionality was removed from the gem.

Julien, your self-answer is a good one, and I've shameless borrowed from it, but it doesn't properly escape reserved characters, and there are a few other edge cases where it breaks down.

require "addressable/uri"
uri = Addressable::URI.new
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[0]=c&b[1]=d&b[2]=e"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => [{:c => "c", :d => "d"}, {:e => "e", :f => "f"}]}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[0][c]=c&b[0][d]=d&b[1][e]=e&b[1][f]=f"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => {:c => "c", :d => "d"}}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[c]=c&b[d]=d"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => {:c => "c", :d => true}}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[c]=c&b[d]"
uri.query_values = {:a => "a", :b => {:c => "c", :d => true}, :e => []}
uri.query
# => "a=a&b[c]=c&b[d]"

The gem is 'addressable'

gem install addressable

Answer 6

No need to load up the bloated ActiveSupport or roll your own, you can use Rack::Utils.build_query and Rack::Utils.build_nested_query. Here's a blog post that gives a good example:

require 'rack'

Rack::Utils.build_query(
  authorization_token: "foo",
  access_level: "moderator",
  previous: "index"
)

# => "authorization_token=foo&access_level=moderator&previous=index"

It even handles arrays:

Rack::Utils.build_query( {:a => "a", :b => ["c", "d", "e"]} )
# => "a=a&b=c&b=d&b=e"
Rack::Utils.parse_query _
# => {"a"=>"a", "b"=>["c", "d", "e"]}

Or the more difficult nested stuff:

Rack::Utils.build_nested_query( {:a => "a", :b => [{:c => "c", :d => "d"}, {:e => "e", :f => "f"}] } )
# => "a=a&b[][c]=c&b[][d]=d&b[][e]=e&b[][f]=f"
Rack::Utils.parse_nested_query _
# => {"a"=>"a", "b"=>[{"c"=>"c", "d"=>"d", "e"=>"e", "f"=>"f"}]}