Question

I am trying to pass a hash into Javascript via JSON where the keys are ruby objects, and the values are arrays of objects. The arrays of objects are transmitted just fine, but the key is being converted into a string of the class.

Here is an example:

[4] pry(#<User>)> x = find_all_sections.collect { |s| { s => s.find_all_events_id_and_title } }
=> [{#<Section id: 58, course_id: 12, section_number: 3, semester_id: 1>} =>
   [{:id=>37, :title=>"Event 37"},
    {:id=>40, :title=>"Event 40"},
    {:id=>9, :title=>"Event 9"},
    {:id=>10, :title=>"Event 10"},
    {:id=>16, :title=>"Event 16"},
    {:id=>38, :title=>"Event 38"}, etc...

The result of converting this to json is (you just have to look at the first few characters of the string to see that it’s not the object, but the to_s of the object:

[11] pry(#<User>)> x.to_json
=> "[{\"#<Section:0x007fa475b52f68>\":[{\"id\":37,\"title\":\"Event 37\"},{\"id\":40,\"title\":\"Event 40\"},{\"id\":9,\"title\":\"Event 9\"},{\"id\":10,\"title\":\"Event 10\"},{\"id\":16,\"title\":\"Event 16\"},{\"id\":38,\"title\":\"Event 38\"},{\"id\":49,\"title\":\"Event 49\"},{\"id\":39,\"title\":\"Event 39\"},{\"id\":15,\"title\":\"Event 15\"},{\"id\":25,\"title\":\"Event 25\"},{\"id\":11,\"title\":\"Event 11\"},{\"id\":4,\"title\":\"Event 4\"},{\"id\":22,\"title\":\"Event 22\"},{\"id\":1,\"title\":\"Event 1\"},{\"id\":23,\"title\":\"Event 23\"},{\"id\":8,\"title\":\"Event 8\"},{\"id\":13,\"title\":\"Event 13\"},{\"id\":26,\"title\":\"Event 26\"},{\"id\":46,\"title\":\"Event 46\"},{\"id\":20,\"title\":\"Event 20\"},{\"id\":31,\"title\":\"Event 31\"},{\"id\":6,\"title\":\"Event 6\"},{\"id\":18,\"title\":\"Event 18\"},{\"id\":41,\"title\":\"Event 41\"},{\"id\":7,\"title\":\"Event 7\"},{\"id\":43,\"title\":\"Event 43\"},{\"id\":45,\"title\":\"Event 45\"},{\"id\":24,\"title\":\"Event 24\"},{\"id\":2,\"title\":\"Event 2\"},{\"id\":44,\"title\":\"Event 44\"},{\"id\":29,\"title\":\"Event 29\"},{\"id\":28,\"title\":\"Event 28\"},{\"id\":5,\"title\":\"Event 5\"},{\"id\":3,\"title\":\"Event 3\"},{\"id\":27,\"title\":\"Event 27\"}]},

How can I achieve the JSON data keeping the key’s object intact?

Answer 1

You can’t. Keys are always strings in JavaScript. Furthermore, the JSON spec says that keys must always have the form of a single, double-quoted string literal.