Ruby efficient each loop - ruby-on-rails

Question

Is there a better way to write this? markdown is a StringIO
coverage_hash_arr = [
{
"Module": "Mobile",
"name": "Sheila Chapman",
"age": 21
},
{
"Module": "Web",
"name": "Hendricks Walton",
"age": 40
},
{
"Module": "Misc",
"name": "Torres Mcdonald",
"age": 39
}
]
coverage_hash_arr.each do |the_hash|
    markdown << "------- Status on #{the_hash[:Module]} -------\n"
    the_hash.delete(:Module)
    the_hash.each {|key, value| markdown << "- #{key}: #{value} \n"}
    markdown << "----------------------------------------------\n"
end
I tried this and it seems to work but I wonder if there's a better way (recursion)?
coverage_hash_arr.collect do |the_hash|
the_hash.each do |key,value|
key == :Module ? markdown << "--------- Status for #{value} ----------\n" : markdown << " - #{key}: #{value} \n"
end
markdown << "------------------------------------\n\n"
end

Answer 1

You could:
use puts instead of << to avoid explicit newlines
use center to center the caption horizontally
use map to generate the attribute strings and utilize puts' behavior of printing array elements on separate lines
use without to get a hash without the :Module key
use * to repeat a string
Applied to your code:
markdown = StringIO.new
coverage_hash_arr.each do |hash|
markdown.puts " Status on #{hash[:Module]} ".center(46, '-')
markdown.puts hash.without(:Module).map { |k, v| "- #{k}: #{v}" }
markdown.puts '-' * 46
markdown.puts
end
Output via puts markdown.string:
-------------- Status on Mobile --------------
- name: Sheila Chapman
- age: 21
----------------------------------------------
--------------- Status on Web ----------------
- name: Hendricks Walton
- age: 40
----------------------------------------------
--------------- Status on Misc ---------------
- name: Torres Mcdonald
- age: 39
----------------------------------------------
Note that the above isn't proper Markdown syntax. You might want to change your output to something like this:
### Status on Mobile
- name: Sheila Chapman
- age: 21
### Status on Web
- name: Hendricks Walton
- age: 40
### Status on Misc
- name: Torres Mcdonald
- age: 39

Answer 2

Here's a more streamlined version which has been adapted to be more idiomatic Ruby:
# Define your hashes with keys having consistent case, and omit extraneous
# surrounding quotes unless defining keys like "this-name" which are not
# valid without escaping.
coverage = [
{
module: "Mobile",
name: "Sheila Chapman",
age: 21
},
{
module: "Web",
name: "Hendricks Walton",
age: 40
},
{
module: "Misc",
name: "Torres Mcdonald",
age: 39
}
]
# Iterate over each of these elements...
coverage.each do |entry|
markdown << "------- Status on #{entry[:module]} -------\n"
entry.each do |key, value|
# Skip a particular key
next if (key == :module)
markdown << "- #{key}: #{value} \n"
end
markdown << "----------------------------------------------\n"
end
This can be adapted to have a list of keys to exclude, or the inverse, of having a list of keys to actually print.
There's really nothing wrong with your approach specifically. The major faux-pas committed is in using delete on the data, which mangles it, rendering it useless if you needed to print this again.
It's generally best to try and avoid tampering with the data you're iterating over unless the purpose of that code is clear in its intent to alter it.

Answer 3

It looks like your input data has always the same key/value pairs and I would be more explicit to make it easier to read and to understand what the actual output is:
coverage_hash_arr.each do |hash|
markdown << <<~STRING
------- Status on #{hash[:Module]} -------
- name: #{hash[:name]}
- age: #{hash[:age]}
----------------------------------------------
STRING
end