Question

I have an array, which is output by a map/reduce method performed by MongoDB, it looks something like this:

[{"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>0.0, "count"=>299.0}, 
{"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>10.0, "count"=>244.0}, 
{"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>1.0, "count"=>204.0}, 
{"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>0.0, "count"=>510.0}, 
{"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>10.0, "count"=>437.0}, 
{"minute"=>0.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>0.0, "count"=>469.0}, 
{"minute"=>0.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>10.0, "count"=>477.0}, 
{"minute"=>15.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>0.0, "count"=>481.0}, 
{"minute"=>15.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>10.0, "count"=>401.0}, 
{"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>0.0, "count"=>468.0}, 
{"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>10.0, "count"=>448.0}, 
{"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>0.0, "count"=>485.0}, 
{"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "type"=>10.0, "count"=>518.0}] 

You’ll notice that there are three distinct values for type, in this case 0, 1, and 2, now want to do is group this array of hashes by the value its type key, so for example this array would end out looking like:

{
  :type_0 => [
    {"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>299.0}, 
    {"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>510.0}, 
    {"minute"=>0.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>469.0}, 
    {"minute"=>15.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>481.0}, 
    {"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>468.0}, 
    {"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>485.0}
  ],

  :type_1 => [
    {"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>204.0}
  ],

  :type_10 => [
    {"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>244.0}, 
    {"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>15.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>437.0},
    {"minute"=>0.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>477.0}, 
    {"minute"=>15.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>401.0}, 
    {"minute"=>30.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>448.0}, 
    {"minute"=>45.0, "hour"=>16.0, "date"=>5.0, "month"=>9.0, "year"=>2011.0, "count"=>518.0}
  ]
} 

so I know these example arrays are really large, but I think it may be a more simple problem than I’m making it out to be

So basically each array of hashes would be grouped by the value of its type key, and then returned as a hash with an array for each type, any help at all would be really really helpful, even just some helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

array.group_by {|x| x['type']}

or if you want the symbol key things you could even

array.group_by {|x| "type_#{x['type']}".to_sym}

I think this best expresses “So basically each array of hashes would be grouped by the value of its type key, and then returned as a hash with an array for each type“, even if it leaves the :type key alone in the output hashes.