Iterating over a hash in an array in a hash in a hash in a hash?

Question

I have an object, eplist , that looks like this...

{'show' => {'name' => 'stella', 'total_seasons' => '1','episodelist' => {'season' => {'episode' => [{'epnum' => '1', 'seasonnum' => '01', 'prodnum' => '101', 'airdate' => '2005-06-28', 'title' => 'pilot'},{'epnum' => '2', 'seasonnum' => '02', 'prodnum' => '103', 'airdate' => '2005-07-05', 'title' => 'campaign'}]}}}}

representing a TV guide. My desire is to iterate through it, and spit out a string like Season 1, Episode 7: TITLE for each episode.

My trouble comes from iterating through it. I just can't seem to write a set of loops that works properly! I've tried

eplist['show']['episodelist'].each do |season|
    season.each do |episode|
        puts episode['title']
    end
end

But that just outputs blank rows -- no error or anything. Trying to do a third .each loop where it puts out whatever element it sees gives me the undefined method each' for "Season":String` error.

In this case, how should I iterate over this object?

Answer 1

From your data structure, try:

As this is a hash,

eplist['show']['episodelist']['season']['episode'].each do |data|
  puts data['title']
  # you can use the below code to get the preferred format
  # puts "Season #{data['seasonnum']}, Episode #{data['epnum']}: #{data['title']}"
end

Answer 2

If you would like to keep your syntax it would be

eplist['show']['episodelist'].each do |season,episodes|
  episodes['episode'].each do | episode|
    puts episode['title']
  end
end

Seems like a strange hash structure though might make more sense as

{'show' => 
  {'name' => 'stella', 'total_seasons' => '1','seasons' => [
    {'season_number' => 1,'episodes' => [
       {'epnum' => '1', 'seasonnum' => '01', 'prodnum' => '101', 'airdate' => '2005-06-28', 'title' => 'pilot'},
       {'epnum' => '2', 'seasonnum' => '02', 'prodnum' => '103', 'airdate' => '2005-07-05', 'title' => 'campaign'}]
    }]
  }
}

Then this would read nicer

 eplist.each do |show,details|
    details['seasons'].each do |season|
       season['episodes'].each do |episode|
         puts episode['title']
       end 
    end
 end