How to check if a specific key is present in a hash or not?

Question

I want to check whether the "user" key is present or not in the session hash. How can I do this?

Note that I don't want to check whether the key's value is nil or not. I just want to check whether the "user" key is present.

Answer 1

Hash's key? method tells you whether a given key is present or not.

session.key?("user")

Answer 2

While Hash#has_key? gets the job done, as Matz notes here, it has been deprecated in favour of Hash#key?.

hash.key?(some_key)

Answer 3

In latest Ruby versions Hash instance has a key? method:

{a: 1}.key?(:a)
=> true

Be sure to use the symbol key or a string key depending on what you have in your hash:

{'a' => 2}.key?(:a)
=> false

Answer 4

It is very late but preferably symbols should be used as key:

my_hash = {}
my_hash[:my_key] = 'value'

my_hash.has_key?("my_key")
 => false 
my_hash.has_key?("my_key".to_sym)
 => true 

my_hash2 = {}
my_hash2['my_key'] = 'value'

my_hash2.has_key?("my_key")
 => true 
my_hash2.has_key?("my_key".to_sym)
 => false 

But when creating hash if you pass string as key then it will search for the string in keys.

But when creating hash you pass symbol as key then has_key? will search the keys by using symbol.

---

If you are using Rails, you can use Hash#with_indifferent_access to avoid this; both hash[:my_key] and hash["my_key"] will point to the same record

Answer 5

Another way is here

hash = {one: 1, two: 2}

hash.member?(:one)
#=> true

hash.member?(:five)
#=> false

Answer 6

You can always use Hash#key? to check if the key is present in a hash or not.

If not it will return you false

hash =  { one: 1, two:2 }

hash.key?(:one)
#=> true

hash.key?(:four)
#=> false

Answer 7

In Rails 5, the has_key? method checks if key exists in hash. The syntax to use it is:

YourHash.has_key? :yourkey

Answer 8

You can use hash.keys.include?(key)

irb(main):001:0> hash = {"pot" => 1, "tot" => 2, "not" => 3}
=> {"pot"=>1, "tot"=>2, "not"=>3}
irb(main):002:0> key = "not"
=> "not"
irb(main):003:0> hash.keys.include?(key)
=> true