In Ruby, how can I convert this string format to a hash -

the string format this

 "a.b.c = 1"  "a.b.d = 2" => hash => {'a'=> {'b' => {'c'=>1, 'd'=>2 } } } 

it gets tricky arrays

 "a.e[0].f = 1"  "a.e[0].g = 2"  "a.e[1].h = 3"  => hash  => {'a' => {'e' => [{'f'=>1, 'g'=>2}, {'h'=>3}] } } 

i wrote version doesn't handle arrays many if-else checks

def construct   $output[$words[0]] = {} unless $output.has_key?($words[0])   pointer = $output[$words[0]]   $words[1..-2].each |word|     pointer[word] = {} unless pointer.has_key?(word)     pointer = pointer[word]   end   pointer[$words[-1]] = 1 end  $output = {} $words = ['a', 'b', 'c'] construct $words = ['a', 'b', 'd'] construct p $output 

the array version worse. there better way of solving in ruby?

not simple did expect. here came with:

class hash   def hash_merge(other)     update(other) | key, val_self, val_other |       case val_self       when hash         val_self.hash_merge val_other       when array         val_self += [nil] * (val_other.length - val_self.length)         val_self.zip(val_other).map { | a, b | && b ? a.hash_merge(b) : || b }       else         # error       end     end   end end  # parses string of form "a.e[1].g = 2" hash {"a" => {"e" => [nil , {"g" => 2}]}} def construct_string(s)   if s =~ /\a\s*(\s+)\s+=\s+(\d+)\z/     s1, s2 = $1, $2     s1.split('.').reverse.inject(s2.to_i) | hash, name |       if name =~ /\[(\d+)\]\z/         name, idx = $~.pre_match, $1.to_i         array = []         array[idx] = hash         { name => array }       else         { name => hash }       end     end   else      # error   end end  # parses array of string , merges resulting hashes def construct(s)   s.map { | e | construct_string(e) }.inject(&:hash_merge) end  ins = ["a.e[0].f = 1",        "a.e[0].g = 2",        "a.e[1].h = 3"]  p construct(ins)   # {"a"=>{"e"=>[{"f"=>1, "g"=>2}, {"h"=>3}]}}