How To Convert Data Types in Ruby

Introduction

While each program you create will contain multiple data types, it is important to keep in mind that you will generally be performing operations within the same data type. That is, you’ll be performing mathematics on numbers, or joining strings together.

Sometimes data comes from external sources, such as the keyboard, an API response, or a database, and you’ll need to convert it in order to work with it. Ruby provides several methods for converting values from one data type to another. In this tutorial, you’ll convert strings to numbers, objects to strings, strings to arrays, and convert between strings and symbols.

Converting Strings to Numbers

Ruby provides the to_i and to_f methods to convert strings to numbers. to_i converts a string to an integer, and to_f converts a string to a float.

"5".to_i       # 5
"55.5".to_i    # 55
"55.5".to_f    # 55.5

To demonstrate this, create a small program that prompts for two numbers and displays the sum. Create a new Ruby program called adder.rb with the following code:

print "What is the first number? "
first_number = gets.chop

print "What is the second number? "
second_number = gets.chop

sum = first_number + second_number

print sum

When you run the program, you’ll get what may feel like an unexpected answer:

ruby adder.rb

Output
What is the first number? 5
What is the second number? 5
55

This program says that the sum of 5 and 5 is 55. You know that’s not right, but the computer isn’t technically wrong. The program prompted for two numbers, but you typed them in on the keyboard. You didn’t send the number 5; you sent the character "5". In other words, your program saw both of your inputs as strings, and when you add the strings "5" and "5" together, you get a new string, "55".

To avoid this, convert both strings to numbers. Modify your program so that it converts both numbers to floats by using the to_f method:

print "What is the first number? "
first_number = gets.chop

print "What is the second number? "
second_number = gets.chop

# convert strings to numbers
first_number = first_number.to_f
second_number = second_number.to_f

sum = first_number + second_number

print sum

Run the program again:

ruby adder.rb

This time, the output will be different:

Output
What is the first number? 5
What is the second number? 5
10.0

When you enter 5 and 5 again, you’ll get 10.0.

The to_i and to_f methods have some interesting behaviors when the strings aren’t numeric. For example:

"123-abc".to_i

Output
123

In this example, converting the string "123-abc" to an integer results in the integer 123. The to_i method stops once it reaches the first non-numeric character. Ruby web developers exploit this by creating URLs like 15-sammy-shark, where 15 is an internal ID to look up a record, but sammy-shark gives a textual description in the URL. When Ruby converts 15-sammy-shark to an integer with to_i, the result is 15, and the -sammy-shark part is truncated and discarded. The integer can then be used to retrieve the record from a database.

Here’s another example of integer behavior that can catch you off-guard:

"abc".to_i

Output
0

In this example, the to_i method returns 0, since none of the characters in the string could be converted. This may result in undesired behavior; if a user enters "abc" into your program, and you convert that value to an integer and divide some number by that value, your program will crash, since it can’t divide by zero.

Ruby offers another way to perform this conversion. You can use the Integer and Float methods to convert data instead:

Integer("123")

Output
123

If you pass the Integer method a value that can’t be converted, Ruby will raise an error:

Integer("123abc")

Output
ArgumentError: invalid value for Integer(): "123abc"

You can then handle the error and provide a message to the user, asking them to provide better data. This approach is less convenient, but it can result in better data integrity, since your data won’t be coerced.

Next, you’ll learn how to convert other types of data to strings.

Converting Data to Strings

Ruby provides the to_s method to convert any other type to a string:

25.to_s                    # "25"
(25.5).to_s                # "25.5"
["Sammy", "Shark"].to_s    # "[\"Sammy\", \"Shark\"]"

You’ll often convert data to strings when creating program output.

Say you want to keep track of a person’s daily calorie burn after a workout. You want to show this progress to the user, which means you’ll be printing out string and numeric values at the same time.

Create a file called calories.rb with the following content:

user = "Sammy"
calories = 100

print "Congratulations, " + user + "! You just burned " + calories + " calories during this workout."

You’re hard-coding the name and calories in this program, but in a real program you’d retrieve those values from another source, like a database or API.

Run the following program:

ruby calories.rb

When you run this program, you’ll encounter an error message:

Output
...
TypeError: no implicit conversion of Integer into String (TypeError)

Ruby won’t let you add the calories variable to the rest of the output, because it’s an integer. You can’t change it to a string by putting quotes around it, because the calorie data might be coming from somewhere you don’t control. Instead, you need to convert the calorie data to a string so you can join it to the rest of the output.

Modify the output line so it converts the calories to a string by using the to_s method:

user = "Sammy"
calories = 100

print "Congratulations, " + user + "! You just burned " + calories.to_s + " calories during this workout."

Run the program again and you’ll receive the output you’re expecting:

Output
Congratulations, Sammy! You just burned 100 calories during this workout.

Another option is to use Ruby’s string interpolation feature, which automatically converts objects to strings for you.

Rewrite the output line of your program to use string interpolation instead:

print "Congratulations, #{user}! You just burned #{calories} calories during this workout."

Run the program again. You’ll notice the same output using the string interpolation method.

Ruby objects all provide their own to_s implementation, which may or may not be adequate for output. You may have to write your own code to get the output you’re looking for or investigate other methods to format the data.

Next, you’ll learn how to convert a string into an array.

Converting Strings to Arrays

If you have a string, you can convert it to an array using the split method:

"one two three".split

Output
["one", "two", "three"]

You can specify the character you want to use as the delimiter by passing it as an argument to the split method.

Create a program called data_import.rb that contains a string of sharks, separated by commas. The program takes the data, converts it to an array, sorts it, and prints out each element to the screen:

data = "Tiger,Great White,Hammerhead,Whale,Bullhead"

# Convert data to an array by splitting on commas
sharks = data.split(",")

# Sort the sharks alphabetically
sharks = sharks.sort!

# Print out the sharks by iterating through the array
sharks.each{|shark| puts shark }

Run the program:

ruby data_import.rb

This is the output:

Output
Bullhead
Great White
Hammerhead
Tiger
Whale

Ruby’s arrays are powerful data structures. This demonstrates one way to use them to process data.

Finally, you can now learn how to convert between strings and symbols.

Converting Between Strings and Symbols

You’ll occasionally want to convert a symbol to a string so you can display it, and you’ll sometimes want to convert a string to a symbol so you can use it to look something up in a hash.

Ruby’s to_s method works on symbols too, so you can convert symbols into strings.

:language.to_s

Output
"language"

This comes in handy if you need to display a symbol and want to transform how it appears. For example, the following program takes the symbol :first_name and converts it to the string "First name", which is more human-readable:

string = :first_name.to_s

# replace underscore with a space and capitalize
string = string.gsub("_"," ").capitalize

To convert a string to a symbol, use the to_sym method, like this:

"first_name".to_sym

Output
:first_name

To take the string "First name" and convert it to the symbol :first_name, you’d lower-case all the letters and replace spaces with underscores:

string = "First name"

# replace spaces with underscores and convert to lowercase
string = string.gsub(" ","_").downcase

# Convert to symbol
symbol = string.to_sym 

You’ll find cases where you’ll want to do these conversions, whether it’s displaying a symbol on the screen in a human-friendly format, or using a string to look up a key in a hash that uses symbols for its keys.

Conclusion

This tutorial demonstrated how to convert several of the important native data types to other data types using built-in methods. You can now convert numbers to strings, strings to arrays, and convert between symbols and strings.

Take a look at these tutorials to continue your exploration of Ruby’s data types:

• How to Work with Strings in Ruby

• How to Work with Arrays in Ruby