How to convert string into Array

Question

I am having string str = "[123, 345, 567]". I want to convert this to an array arr = [123, 345, 567]. How to do this?

Answer 1

If you know that the string contains an array, you can just plain use eval;

arr = eval(str)

If you're not sure, you can go for the a bit more involved removing braces, splitting on , and collecting the numbers to an array;

arr = str[1..-2].split(',').collect! {|n| n.to_i}

Demo of both here.

Answer 2

str = "[123, 345, 567]"

1) eval(str)

2) str = "[123, 345, 567]".scan( /\d+/ ) # Make the array
str.map!{ |s| s.to_i } # convert into integer