CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubyclasscsv
Graham Slick
Graham Slick

Reputation: 6870

Store objects in CSV file without changing their class to string

I'm storing some recipe instances in a CSV file like this:

def add_recipe(recipe)
  CSV.open(@filepath, 'ab', @csv_options) do |csv|
    csv << [recipe, recipe.name, recipe.description, false]
  end
end

with recipe being an intense of my Recipe class. In the file, I have something like this: 

"#<Recipe:0x007fee9bbbab48>", "name1", "description1", "false"
"#<Recipe:0x007fee9bbbab49>", "name2", "description2", "false"

The issue is that when I want to retrieve the object stored in each row with row[0] or the boolean with row[2], I get a string containing the object or the boolean.

How can I get the object with its original class which is Recipe or boolean but not as a string?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1465

Answers (2)

zwippie
zwippie

Reputation: 15515

What you have stored in the first column is the result of recipe.to_s, which is nothing more than a string with the class type and an encoding of the object id. This is not the same as a serialized object.

You have to write each attribute of the recipes as you have already done, and not write recipe itself to a line.

csv << [recipe.id, recipe.name, recipe.description, recipe.other_attribute]

Upvotes: 1

sawa
sawa

Reputation: 168131

You cannot. It is impossible with CSV (unless you invent your own serialization method for CSV). .........................

Upvotes: 1

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