Traverse JSON tree and in Ruby and format [closed] - ruby-on-rails

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my request returns any type of JSON. I would like to give a key to each attribute recursively in Ruby.
{
"name": "My name",
"age": 17,
"users": [
{
"name": "John Doe",
"colours": [
"blue",
"red"
],
"animals": [
{
"name": "Panthera"
}
]
}
]
}
It should traverse the tree and return:
[ 'name', 'age', 'users[]' 'users[]name', 'users[]colours', 'users[]animals', users[]animals[]name' ]
I can get top-level keys by calling Hash.keys but not sure how to traverse the tree and return custom key. Thanks for your help.
j = {"name":"My name","age":17,"users":[{"name":"John Doe","colours":["blue","red"],"animals":[{"name":"Panthera"}]}]}
a = []
j.keys.each do |key|
if key.class == Array
a << "#{key}[]"
else
a << key
end
end
a

Answer 1

This seems to achieve what you want. You were on the right track thinking recursively. I added comments to explain what's happening.
require 'json'
# Convert JSON to a ruby hash
j = JSON.parse('{"name":"My name","age":17,"users":[{"name":"John Doe","colours":["blue","red"],"animals":[{"name":"Panthera"}]}]}')
a = []
def make_array_from_hash_keys(array, hash, prefix = "")
# Iterate through the hash's key/value pairs
hash.each do |key, value|
# If the value is an array, we set a new prefix and add that to the main
# array. Then we iterate through this inner array to see if there are more
# hashes. If there are, call the parent method to generate more elements
# for the array, using the new prefix.
if value.class == Array
new_prefix = "#{prefix + key}[]"
array << new_prefix
hash[key].each do |array_value|
if array_value.class == Hash
# |= makes sure that the final array elements are unique
array |= make_array_from_hash_keys(array, array_value, new_prefix)
end
end
# If the value is not an array, simply add it to the main array with the
# necessary prefix
else
array << prefix + key
end
end
array
end
new_array = make_array_from_hash_keys(a, j)
puts new_array.inspect
# Gives us:
# ["name", "age", "users[]", "users[]name", "users[]colours[]", "users[]animals[]", "users[]animals[]name"]