Question

I am still very new to Ruby and was wondering how I would access a data element stored in a “double less than” structure:

@email << {:envelope => envelope, :body => body}

If I do

<% @results.email.each do |result| %>

  <%= result %>

<% end %>

I get

bodyTEST TEST envelope#<struct Net::IMAP::Envelope date="Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:20:35 -0700", subject="TEST TEST", from=[#<struct Net::IMAP::Address name="Some Name", route=nil, mailbox="someinbox", host="somehost.com">], sender=[#<struct Net::IMAP::Address name="Somename", route=nil, mailbox="somebox", host="somedomaincom">], reply_to=[#<struct Net::IMAP::Address name="SomePerson", route=nil, mailbox="somemailbox", host="somehost.com">], to=[#<struct Net::IMAP::Address name=nil, route=nil, mailbox="thisinbox", host="somehost.com">], cc=nil, bcc=nil, in_reply_to=nil, message_id="<[e-mail]>">

How do access each element, like body, envelope, sender (within envelope)? result.body doesn’t work, nor does result[body].

Thanks!

Answer 1

You should use result[:body] and not result[body]. body is a variable, whereas :body is a symbol (similar to a string).

Notice that you have stored values in the hash with symbols. {:envelope => envelope; :body => body} is storing the content of the variable envelope (the one on the right) as the value against the key :envelope (and the same for body and :body).

Note: This is a nice write up on how Symbols differ from Strings – http://www.robertsosinski.com/2009/01/11/the-difference-between-ruby-symbols-and-strings/