How to write to a JSON file in the correct format

Question

Require the JSON library, and use to_json.

require 'json'
tempHash = {
    "key_a" => "val_a",
    "key_b" => "val_b"
}
File.open("public/temp.json","w") do |f|
  f.write(tempHash.to_json)
end

Your temp.json file now looks like:

{"key_a":"val_a","key_b":"val_b"}

With formatting

require 'json'
tempHash = {
    "key_a" => "val_a",
    "key_b" => "val_b"
}
File.open("public/temp.json","w") do |f|
  f.write(JSON.pretty_generate(tempHash))
end

Output

{
    "key_a":"val_a",
    "key_b":"val_b"
}

This question is for ruby 1.8 but it still comes on top when googling.

in ruby >= 1.9 you can use

File.write("public/temp.json",tempHash.to_json)

other than what mentioned in other answers, in ruby 1.8 you can also use one liner form

File.open("public/temp.json","w"){ |f| f.write tempHash.to_json }

To make this work on Ubuntu Linux:

1. I installed the Ubuntu package ruby-json:

   apt-get install ruby-json
   

2. I wrote the script in ${HOME}/rubybin/jsonDEMO

3. $HOME/.bashrc included:

   ${HOME}/rubybin:${PATH}
   

(On this occasion I also typed the above on the bash command line.)

Then it worked when I entered on the command line:

jsonDemo