I'm trying group data for a web service.
The web service is running on Ruby on Rails and I'm working in my API controller (lets call it the index action of my projects_controller.
The table schema looks like this (the data types and example has been changed for NDA reasons). Unfortunately, the example here suggests that I break employee and projects into different tables, but please overlook that for now. This is the data that I am given:
COLUMNS:
employee, e_id, company, hire_date, project_name, project_due_date
ROWS:
John, 12345, XYZ, 01-01-2001, Project_A, 12-31-2012
John, 12345, XYZ, 01-01-2001, Project_B, 03-15-2013
John, 12345, XYZ, 01-01-2001, Project_C, 06-25-2013
Jane, 98765, XYZ, 05-22-2003, Project_Q, 01-15-2013
Jane, 98765, XYZ, 05-22-2003, Project_W, 02-25-2013
Jane, 98765, XYZ, 05-22-2003, Project_E, 08-01-2013
In order to reduce data transfer, I would like to return the above as follows:
[
{
"employee":"John",
"e_id":"12345",
"company":"XYZ",
"hire_date":"01-01-2001",
"projects":[
{ "project_name":"Project_A", "project_due_date":"12-31-2012" },
{ "project_name":"Project_B", "project_due_date":"03-15-2013" },
{ "project_name":"Project_C", "project_due_date":"06-25-2013" }
]
},
{
"employee":"Jane",
"e_id":"98765",
"company":"XYZ",
"hire_date":"05-22-2003",
"projects":[
{ "project_name":"Project_Q", "project_due_date":"01-15-2013" },
{ "project_name":"Project_W", "project_due_date":"02-25-2013" },
{ "project_name":"Project_E", "project_due_date":"08-01-2013" }
]
}
]
I can't seem to figure out the best way to group my SQL query results (rows) into the organized hash(es) that I have in the ideal data. I imagine I need some .each and hashes to post-process the data returned by my SQL call, but I can't seem to figure out the "Ruby" way (I'm also not a seasoned Ruby developer, so any reference links would also be appreciated so I can read up on the solution).
How can I accomplish this?
[EDIT]
I am performing a SQL query on the Project object. My controller is as follows:
def index
sql = "SELECT employee, e_id, company, hire_date, project_name, project_due_date
FROM projects
AND created_at = (SELECT created_at FROM projects ORDER BY created_at DESC LIMIT 1)
ORDER BY company, employee, project_due_date"
result = Project.find_by_sql(sql)
respond_with(result)
end
The data I am getting back is a bunch of Project objects in the following format
RUBY DEBUGGER:
(rdb:2) result
[#<Project employee: "John", e_id: 12345, company: "XYZ", hire_date: "01-01-2001", project_name: "Project_A", project_due_date: "12-31-2012">,
#<Project employee: "John", e_id: 12345, company: "XYZ", hire_date: "01-01-2001", project_name: "Project_B", project_due_date: "03-15-2013">,
#<Project employee: "John", e_id: 12345, company: "XYZ", hire_date: "01-01-2001", project_name: "Project_C", project_due_date: "06-25-2013">,
#<Project employee: "Jane", e_id: 98765, company: "XYZ", hire_date: "05-22-2003", project_name: "Project_Q", project_due_date: "01-15-2013">,
#<Project employee: "Jane", e_id: 98765, company: "XYZ", hire_date: "05-22-2003", project_name: "Project_W", project_due_date: "02-25-2013">,
#<Project employee: "Jane", e_id: 98765, company: "XYZ", hire_date: "05-22-2003", project_name: "Project_E", project_due_date: "08-01-2013">]
[EDIT 2]
I know I can resolve this problem in a very naive, non-Ruby way, but I'd like to know the proper way to get it working. A basic solution could consist of iterating through the result array and parsing out the data row by row, saving the employee data to a temp hash and their project data to an array of hashes. When the iteration comes to a new employee, save the data for the previous employee data in an array and reset the temp array/hashes for the next employee. Very ugly, but very possible.
However, there MUST be a Ruby way. Please help!