Conversion from one object type to another with a bit of black magic.
Necromancer provides independent type conversion component for TTY toolkit.
Conversion between Ruby core types frequently comes up in projects but is solved by half-baked solutions. This library aims to provide an independent and extensible API to support a robust and generic way to convert between core Ruby types.
- Simple and expressive API
- Ability to specify own converters
- Ability to compose conversions out of simpler ones
- Support conversion of custom defined types
- Ability to specify strict conversion mode
Add this line to your application's Gemfile:
gem "necromancer"
And then execute:
$ bundle
Or install it yourself as:
$ gem install necromancer
Necromancer knows how to handle conversions between various types using the convert
method. The convert
method takes as an argument the value to convert from. Then to perform actual coercion use the to
or more functional style >>
method that accepts the type for the returned value which can be :symbol
, object
or ClassName
.
For example, to convert a string to a range type:
Necromancer.convert("1-10").to(:range) # => 1..10
Necromancer.convert("1-10") >> :range # => 1..10
Necromancer.convert("1-10") >> Range # => 1..10
In order to handle boolean conversions:
Necromancer.convert("t").to(:boolean) # => true
Necromancer.convert("t") >> true # => true
To convert string to numeric value:
Necromancer.convert("10e1").to(:numeric) # => 100
You can convert string to array of values like boolean
, integer
or float
:
Necromancer.convert("t,f,t"]).to(:booleans) # => [true, false, true]
Necromancer.convert("1,2.3,3.0"]).to(:integers) # => [1, 2, 3]
Necromancer.convert("1,2.3,3.0"]).to(:floats) # => [1.0, 2.3, 3.0]
To convert string to hash value:
Necromancer.convert("a:1 b:2 c:3").to(:hash) # => {a: "1", b: "2", c: "3"}
Necromancer.convert("a=1 b=2 c=3").to(:hash) # => {a: "1", b: "2", c: "3"}
To provide extra information about the conversion value type use the from
:
Necromancer.convert(["1", "2.3", "3.0"]).from(:array).to(:numeric) # => [1, 2.3, 3.0]
Necromancer also allows you to add custom conversions.
When conversion isn't possible, a Necromancer::NoTypeConversionAvailableError
is thrown indicating that convert
doesn't know how to perform the requested conversion:
Necromancer.convert(:foo).to(:float)
# => Necromancer::NoTypeConversionAvailableError: Conversion 'foo->float' unavailable.
Necromancer will perform conversions on the supplied object through use of convert
, from
and to
methods.
For the purpose of divination, Necromancer uses convert
method to turn source type into target type. For example, in order to convert a string into a range type do:
Necromancer.convert("1,10").to(:range) # => 1..10
Alternatively, you can use block:
Necromancer.convert { "1,10" }.to(:range) # => 1..10
Conversion isn't always possible, in which case a Necromancer::NoTypeConversionAvailableError
is thrown indicating that convert
doesn't know how to perform the requested conversion:
Necromancer.convert(:foo).to(:float)
# => Necromancer::NoTypeConversionAvailableError: Conversion 'foo->float' unavailable.
To specify conversion source type use from
method:
Necromancer.convert("1.0").from(:string).to(:numeric)
In majority of cases you do not need to specify from
as the type will be inferred from the convert
method argument and then appropriate conversion will be applied to result in target
type such as :numeric
. However, if you do not control the input to convert
and want to ensure consistent behaviour please use from
.
The source parameters are:
:array
:boolean
:date
:datetime
:float
:integer
:numeric
:range
:string
:time
To convert objects between types, Necromancer provides several target types. The to
or functional style >>
method allows you to pass target as an argument to perform actual conversion. The target can be one of :symbol
, object
or ClassName
:
Necromancer.convert("yes").to(:boolean) # => true
Necromancer.convert("yes") >> :boolean # => true
Necromancer.convert("yes") >> true # => true
Necromancer.convert("yes") >> TrueClass # => true
By default, when target conversion fails the original value is returned. However, you can pass strict
as an additional argument to ensure failure when conversion cannot be performed:
Necromancer.convert("1a").to(:integer, strict: true)
# => raises Necromancer::ConversionTypeError
The target parameters are:
:array
:boolean
,:booleans
,:bools
,:boolean_hash
,:bool_hash
:date
:datetime
,:float
,:floats
,:float_hash
:integer
,:integers
,:ints
,:integer_hash
,:int_hash
:numeric
,:numerics
,:nums
,:numeric_hash
,:num_hash
:range
:string
:time
To verify that a given conversion can be handled by Necromancer call can?
with the source
and target
of the desired conversion.
converter = Necromancer.new
converter.can?(:string, :integer) # => true
converter.can?(:unknown, :integer) # => false
You may set global configuration options on Necromancer instance by passing a block like so:
Necromancer.new do |config|
config.strict true
end
Or calling configure
method:
converter = Necromancer.new
converter.configure do |config|
config.copy false
end
Available configuration options are:
strict
- ensures correct types for conversion, by defaultfalse
copy
- ensures only copy is modified, by defaulttrue
Necromancer flexibility means you can register your own converters or use the already defined converters for such types as Array
, Boolean
, Date
, DateTime
, Hash
, Numeric
, Range
and Time
.
The Necromancer allows you to transform arbitrary object into array:
Necromancer.convert(nil).to(:array) # => []
Necromancer.convert({x: 1}).to(:array) # => [[:x, 1]]
In addition, Necromancer excels at converting ,
or -
delimited string into an array object:
Necromancer.convert("a, b, c").to(:array) # => ["a", "b", "c"]
If the string is a list of -
or ,
separated numbers, they will be converted to their respective numeric types:
Necromancer.convert("1 - 2 - 3").to(:array) # => [1, 2, 3]
It handles conversion of string into an array of boolean values as well:
Necromancer.convert("yes,no,t").to(:booleans) # => [true, false, true]
Necromancer.convert("1 - f - FALSE").to(:bools) # => [true, false, false]
You can also convert array containing string objects to array containing numeric values:
Necromancer.convert(["1", "2.3", "3.0"]).to(:numerics) # => [1, 2.3, 3.0]
Necromancer.convert(["1", "2.3", "3.0"]).to(:nums) # => [1, 2.3, 3.0]
Or you can be more specific by using :integers
and :floats
as the resulting type:
Necromancer.convert(["1", "2.3", "3.0"]).to(:integers) # => [1, 2, 3]
When in strict
mode the conversion will raise a Necromancer::ConversionTypeError
error like so:
Necromancer.convert(["1", "2.3", false]).to(:numerics, strict: true)
# => Necromancer::ConversionTypeError: false cannot be converted from `array` to `numerics`
However, in non-strict
mode the value will be simply returned unchanged:
Necromancer.convert(["1", "2.3", false]).to(:numerics, strict: false)
# => [1, 2.3, false]
The Necromancer allows you to convert a string object to boolean object. The 1
, "1"
, "t"
, "T"
, "true"
, "TRUE"
, "y"
, "Y"
, "yes"
, "Yes"
, "on"
, "ON"
values are converted to TrueClass
.
Necromancer.convert("yes").to(:boolean) # => true
Similarly, the 0
, "0"
, "f"
, "F"
, "false"
, "FALSE"
, "n"
, "N"
, "no"
, "No"
, "off"
, "OFF"
values are converted to FalseClass
.
Necromancer.convert("no").to(:boolean) # => false
You can also convert an integer object to boolean:
Necromancer.convert(1).to(:boolean) # => true
Necromancer.convert(0).to(:boolean) # => false
Necromancer knows how to convert string to date
object:
Necromancer.convert("1-1-2015").to(:date) # => "2015-01-01"
Necromancer.convert("01/01/2015").to(:date) # => "2015-01-01"
You can also convert string to datetime
:
Necromancer.convert("1-1-2015").to(:datetime) # => "2015-01-01T00:00:00+00:00"
Necromancer.convert("1-1-2015 15:12:44").to(:datetime) # => "2015-01-01T15:12:44+00:00"
To convert a string to a time instance do:
Necromancer.convert("01-01-2015").to(:time) # => 2015-01-01 00:00:00 +0100
Necromancer.convert("01-01-2015 08:35").to(:time) # => 2015-01-01 08:35:00 +0100
Necromancer.convert("12:35").to(:time) # => 2015-01-04 12:35:00 +0100
With Necromancer you can convert a string with pairs delimited by =
or :
characters into a hash:
Necromancer.convert("a:1 b:2 c:3").to(:hash)
Necromancer.convert("a=1 b=2 c=3").to(:hash)
# => {a: "1", b: "2", c: "3"}
The pairs can be separated by &
symbols and mix =
and :
pair delimiters:
Necromancer.convert("a:1 & b=2 & c:3").to(:hash)
# => {a: "1", b: "2", c: "3"}
You can also convert string to hash with integer values using :int_hash
type:
Necromancer.convert("a:1 b:2 c:3").to(:int_hash) # => {a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}
Necromancer.convert("a:1 b:2 c:3").to(:integer_hash) # => {a: 1, b: 2, c: 3}
Similarly you can convert string to hash with float
or numeric
values using :float_hash
and numeric_hash
types:
Necromancer.convert("a:1 b:2 c:3").to(:float_hash) # => {a: 1.0, b: 2.0, c: 3.0}
Necromancer.convert("a:1 b:2.0 c:3").to(:num_hash) # => {a: 1, b:2.0, c: 3}
String can also be converted to hash with boolean values using :boolean_hash
or :bool_hash
:
Necromancer.convert("a:yes b:no c:t").to(:bool_hash) # => {a: true, b: false, c: true}
Necromancer comes ready to convert all the primitive numeric values.
To convert a string to a float do:
Necromancer.convert("1.2a").to(:float) # => 1.2
Conversion to numeric in strict mode raises Necromancer::ConversionTypeError
:
Necromancer.convert("1.2a").to(:float, strict: true) # => raises error
To convert a string to an integer do:
Necromancer.convert("1a").to(:integer) # => 1
However, if you want to convert string to an appropriate matching numeric type do:
Necromancer.convert("1e1").to(:numeric) # => 10
Necromancer is no stranger to figuring out ranges from strings. You can pass ,
, -
, ..
, ...
characters to denote ranges:
Necromancer.convert("1,10").to(:range) # => 1..10
Or to create a range of letters:
Necromancer.convert("a-z").to(:range) # => "a".."z"
It will handle space characters:
Necromancer.convert("1 . . 10") >> :range # => 1..10
Necromancer.convert("a . . . z") >> :range # => "a"..."z"
In case where provided conversions do not match your needs you can create your own and register
with Necromancer by using an Object
or a Proc
.
Firstly, you need to create a converter that at minimum requires to specify call
method that will be invoked during conversion:
UpcaseConverter = Struct.new(:source, :target) do
def call(value, options = {})
value.upcase
end
end
Inside the UpcaseConverter
you have access to global configuration options by directly calling config
method.
Then you need to specify what type conversions this converter will support. For example, UpcaseConverter
will allow a string object to be converted to a new string object with content upper cased. This can be done:
upcase_converter = UpcaseConverter.new(:string, :upcase)
Necromancer provides the register
method to add converter:
converter = Necromancer.new
converter.register(upcase_converter) # => true if successfully registered
Finally, by invoking convert
method and specifying :upcase
as the target for the conversion we achieve the result:
converter.convert("magic").to(:upcase) # => "MAGIC"
Using a Proc object you can create and immediately register a converter. You need to pass source
and target
of the conversion that will be used later on to match the conversion. The convert
allows you to specify the actual conversion in block form. For example:
converter = Necromancer.new
converter.register do |c|
c.source= :string
c.target= :upcase
c.convert = proc { |value, options| value.upcase }
end
Then by invoking the convert
method and passing the :upcase
conversion type you can transform the string like so:
converter.convert("magic").to(:upcase) # => "MAGIC"
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/piotrmurach/necromancer. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.
- Fork it ( https://github.com/piotrmurach/necromancer/fork )
- Create your feature branch (
git checkout -b my-new-feature
) - Commit your changes (
git commit -am 'Add some feature'
) - Push to the branch (
git push origin my-new-feature
) - Create a new Pull Request
The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.
Copyright (c) 2014 Piotr Murach. See LICENSE for further details.