Question

In my Rails app, I have the following method:

def navigation_menu(items)
  # raise items.class.to_s
  # raise items.to_yaml
  render partial: 'global/navigation_menu', locals: items
end

If I uncomment the first line of the method, “Hash” is shown for the exception text, proving that items is a hash. If I uncomment the second line, the members of the hash are shown, so I also know it’s not empty.

That method fails with the following error:

comparison of String with :navigation_menu failed

If I replace locals: items with locals: { dummy_key: 'dummy value' }, it works.

Why can’t I use my items variable in place of an explicit hash?

Answer 1

What you wrote should work, I often proceed this way.

There is a particular case though: Hashes having keys as strings fail to be interpreted correctly. So it’s necessary in this case to append symbolize_keys to the Hash:

  render partial: 'global/navigation_menu', locals: items.symbolize_keys