Improved OpenStruct

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        This class provides a few new capabilities in addition to what is provided by the OpenStruct class.

The method _to_hash will return a hash representation of the struct, including nested structs.

The method _table will return a hash representation, but will not resolve any nested structs.

The method _manual_set takes a hash and adds it to the struct.  This is similar to OpenStruct's ability to take a hash as an initial argument to create a struct, this method allows the struct to be modifed post instantiation.

The method names start with an _ (underscore) to avoid any conflicts between these methods and struct assignments.

Implementation note: I created a new class rather than extending the existing OpenStruct class due to my personal preference of not changing the behavior for standard library classes.  However, one could just as easily extend the OpenStruct class with these behaviors as well.

require 'ostruct'

class MoreOpenStruct < OpenStruct
  def _to_hash
    h = @table
    #handles nested structures
    h.each do |k,v|
      if v.class == MoreOpenStruct
        h[k] = v._to_hash
      end
    end
    return h
  end
  
  def _table
    @table   #table is the hash structure used in OpenStruct
  end
  
  def _manual_set(hash)
    if hash && (hash.class == Hash)
      for k,v in hash
        @table[k.to_sym] = v
        new_ostruct_member(k)
      end
    end
  end
end

Tags:
• hash
• openstruct
• Ruby
• struct