How to pass a hash as a param to a method called through eval?

Ruby
1

Hi Folks - I’ve got a data-driven app I’m building, and I’d like to be
able to read a set of data from a json file, pass that to eval, and have
it executed:

json:
{
“action”: “someFunc”,
“params”: {
“a”: “foo”,
“b”: “bar”,
“c”: “etc”
}
}

call = JSON.parse(json)
eval("#{call[‘action’]} #{call[‘params’]}")

Problem is that ‘call[‘params’]’ is treated as a string by the receiver,
not the hash I intended to pass. Tried using casting operations first,
like .to_s and then .to_hash, but the to_hash call fails w/ no method
error. Instead the hash comes through as a string. How can I pass it
so that it remains a hash, and retains its structure for key/val reading
in the receiver?

Thanks,
Alex

2

On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 10:57 PM, Alex S. [email protected] wrote:

How can I pass it
so that it remains a hash, and retains its structure for key/val reading
in the receiver?

Thanks,
Alex

Adding parentheses around #{call[‘params’]} should do it:

eval(“#{call[‘action’]}(#{call[‘params’]})”)

Ammar

3

Thanks, but… tried that already and it fails without even calling the
method:

“…undefined method `com’ for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)”

So I tried that w/ single quotes too:

eval("#{call[‘action’]}(’#{call[‘params’]}’)")

and that works, but still passes the params as a string, not a hash. :frowning:

-Alex

4

Alex S. wrote:

Hi Folks - I’ve got a data-driven app I’m building, and I’d like to be
able to read a set of data from a json file, pass that to eval, and have
it executed:

json:
{
“action”: “someFunc”,
“params”: {
“a”: “foo”,
“b”: “bar”,
“c”: “etc”
}
}

call = JSON.parse(json)
eval("#{call[‘action’]} #{call[‘params’]}")

I’m pretty sure that what you really want is this:

send(call[‘action’], call[‘params’])

For simple cases you might be able to work with eval, like this:

eval("#{call[‘action’]} #{call[‘params’].inspect}")

But that’s fragile, slow, and fraught with security dangers. If what you
want is to call a method whose name is in a variable, then the tool is
provided to do that: ‘send’

5

On Sun, Jul 11, 2010 at 11:29 PM, Alex S. [email protected] wrote:

The argument should be a string, that’s what eval expects. The problem
with
the first version (without the parentheses) was syntax. I don’t know
where
the “com” or the nil:NilClass are coming from. Is there something
missing
from your code sample?

Here’s what I get in irb:

mini:~ ammar$ rvm use 1.9.1
info: Using ruby 1.9.1 p378
mini:~ ammar$ irb
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > require ‘json’
=> true
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > def some_func(hash); puts “from function:
#{hash.inspect}”; end
=> nil
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > j = ‘{ “action”: “some_func”, “params”: { “a”: “foo”,
“b”:
“bar” } }’
=> “{ "action": "some_func", "params": { "a": "foo", "b":
"bar" } }”
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > call = JSON.parse(j)
=> {“action”=>“some_func”, “params”=>{“a”=>“foo”, “b”=>“bar”}}
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > eval(“#{call[‘action’]}(#{call[‘params’]})”)
from function: {“a”=>“foo”, “b”=>“bar”}
=> nil

Ammar

6

Just use ‘puts’ instead of ‘eval’ to see what’s happening.

json = <<EOS
{
“action”: “someFunc”,
“params”: {
“a”: “foo”,
“b”: “bar”,
“c”: “etc”
}
}
EOS
=> “{\n “action”: “someFunc”,\n “params”: {\n “a”:
“foo”,\n “b”: “bar”,\n “c”: “etc”\n }\n}\n”

require ‘rubygems’
=> true

require ‘json’
=> true

call = JSON.parse(json)
=> {“action”=>“someFunc”, “params”=>{“a”=>“foo”, “b”=>“bar”,
“c”=>“etc”}}

puts “#{call[‘action’]} #{call[‘params’]}”
someFunc afoobbarcetc
=> nil

puts “#{call[‘action’]}(’#{call[‘params’]}’)”
someFunc(‘afoobbarcetc’)
=> nil

Should be pretty obvious now, remember that eval is just interpreting
that string as a piece of ruby code.

7

On Jul 11, 2:57 pm, Alex S. [email protected] wrote:
[…]

Problem is that ‘call[‘params’]’ is treated as a string by the receiver,
not the hash I intended to pass. Tried using casting operations first,
like .to_s and then .to_hash, but the to_hash call fails w/ no method
error. Instead the hash comes through as a string. How can I pass it
so that it remains a hash, and retains its structure for key/val reading
in the receiver?

This will do it:

eval(“#{call[‘action’]}(call[‘params’])”)

Depending on context, you can probably completely avoid using eval:

method(call[‘action’]).call(call[‘params’])

When you use #{call[‘params’]}, I think that calls #to_s on the Hash
which causes what you’re seeing.

Jeremy

8

Hi –

On Mon, 12 Jul 2010, Brian C. wrote:

}

puts “#{call[‘action’]} #{call[‘params’]}”
someFunc afoobbarcetc
=> nil
puts “#{call[‘action’]}(‘#{call[‘params’]}’)”
someFunc(‘afoobbarcetc’)
=> nil

Should be pretty obvious now, remember that eval is just interpreting
that string as a piece of ruby code.

Footnote: in 1.9, Hash#to_s has changed such that (like Array#to_s) it
returns more of an inspect string:

puts “#{call[‘action’]}(#{call[‘params’]})”
someFunc({“a”=>“foo”, “b”=>“bar”, “c”=>“etc”})

(I concur however in your point that send is almost certainly a better
choice anyway.)

David

–
David A. Black, Senior Developer, Cyrus Innovation Inc.

The Ruby training with Black/Brown/McAnally
Compleat Stay tuned for next event announcement!
Rubyist http://www.compleatrubyist.com

9

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 12:41 AM, Alex S. [email protected] wrote:

Thanks. You’re actually the second response to suggest doing it that
way (w/ eval). But it doesn’t work for me.

Though, the first respondent is using 1.9.1, and I’ve got 1.8.7 at the
moment. Are you by chance also on 1.9.1?

On 1.8.7 use yermej’s suggestion, without the interpolation, if you
choose
to stick with eval despite the excellent suggestions to use send
instead:

eval(“#{call[‘action’]}(call[‘params’])”)

Cheers,
Ammar

10

Thanks. You’re actually the second response to suggest doing it that
way (w/ eval). But it doesn’t work for me.

Though, the first respondent is using 1.9.1, and I’ve got 1.8.7 at the
moment. Are you by chance also on 1.9.1?

-Alex

11

Thanks again, yermej’s suggestion actually worked out. I’ve now got
send doing exactly what I wanted to accomplish.

Going into my thinking on this problem, I knew I wanted dynamic
execution, and being relatively new to ruby, thought that eval would be
the right tool. Wasn’t aware of send. Great thing is it caused me to
look up the Object and see all the cool things it can do for me.

So my original question probably should have been, “is eval even the
right tool for this?”. Of course, that’s not always obvious considering
there’s always more than one way to do something in ruby.

12

Alex S. wrote:

So my original question probably should have been, “is eval even the
right tool for this?”. Of course, that’s not always obvious considering
there’s always more than one way to do something in ruby.

Certainly. You should also be aware that ‘send’ is also not without its
security problems:

$ irb --simple-prompt

RUBY_DESCRIPTION
=> “ruby 1.8.7 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 249) [x86_64-linux]”

foo = “system”
=> “system”

bar = “rm /tmp/nonexistent*”
=> “rm /tmp/nonexistent*”

send(foo,bar)
rm: cannot remove `/tmp/nonexistent*’: No such file or directory
=> false

$ irb19 --simple-prompt

RUBY_DESCRIPTION
=> “ruby 1.9.2dev (2009-07-18 trunk 24186) [i686-linux]”

foo = “system”
=> “system”

bar = “rm /tmp/nonexistent*”
=> “rm /tmp/nonexistent*”

send(foo,bar)
rm: cannot remove `/tmp/nonexistent*’: No such file or directory
=> false

So it may be a good idea to give all your callable methods a prefix
(“do_xxx”), and/or only call public methods:

send(foo,bar) if respond_to?(foo)

13

On 11.07.2010 23:00, Brian C. wrote:

}

puts “#{call[‘action’]} #{call[‘params’]}”
someFunc afoobbarcetc
=> nil

puts “#{call[‘action’]}(’#{call[‘params’]}’)”
someFunc(‘afoobbarcetc’)
=> nil

Should be pretty obvious now, remember that eval is just interpreting
that string as a piece of ruby code.

I wouldn’t even use eval here - it’s unsafe and slow. Something like
this should work

send(call[‘action’], *call[‘params’])

Kind regards

robert

14

Eval is also a wonky work flow.

You have data serialized as JSON in a String
You parse it into a Ruby hash
You then serialize it as Ruby code in a String
You then eval the string to get the hash back out of it…

I don’t know what types JSON supports, but if it supports anything that
doesn’t have a literal, then that second converting to String and
evaling
will break. Also explains why Amir’s solution breaks on 1.8, because, as
David A. Black pointed out, Hash#to_s changed, and that is what is being
used to serialize it (which implies to me that this may not be realized)

mini:~ ammar$ rvm use 1.9.1
info: Using ruby 1.9.1 p378
mini:~ ammar$ irb
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > require ‘json’
=> true
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > def some_func(hash); puts “from function:
#{hash.inspect}”; end
=> nil
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > j = ‘{ “action”: “some_func”, “params”: { “a”: “foo”,
“b”:
“bar” } }’
=> “{ “action”: “some_func”, “params”: { “a”: “foo”, “b”:
“bar” } }”
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > call = JSON.parse(j)
=> {“action”=>“some_func”, “params”=>{“a”=>“foo”, “b”=>“bar”}}
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > eval("#{call[‘action’]}(#{
call[‘params’]})")
from function: {“a”=>“foo”, “b”=>“bar”}
=> nil