How to return the vaue of a specified hash key in an array in ruby? -

i have method attempts search array locating each record matching specified key , value.

def search(key, query)      some_stuff = [{"title"=>"awesome book", "author"=>"john doe", "qty"=>"5"}, {"title"=>"another book", "author"=>"jane doe", "qty"=>"2"}, {"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"}]     # if put following in block return has records      #however how substitute key , query?     some_stuff.select {|b| b[].include? "jo" }     if matches.any?        # has records     else        # has no records     end end  # if call object.search(author, jo) # want return 2 records containing authors names "jo" in them  # if call object.search(title, rub) # want query return 1 record 

also, how sort specified field

currently i'm thinking using case switch i'm sure there easier way

require 'pp'  some_stuff = [   {"title"=>"another book", "author"=>"jane doe", "qty"=>"2"},    {"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"},   {"title"=>"awesome book", "author"=>"john doe", "qty"=>"5"}, ]  def search(key, query)   some_stuff.select {|record| record[key].downcase.include? query } end   pp search('author', 'jo') pp search('title', 'ru')   --output:-- [{"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"},  {"title"=>"awesome book", "author"=>"john doe", "qty"=>"5"}] [{"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"}] 

also, how sort specified field

require 'pp'  some_stuff = [   {"title"=>"another book", "author"=>"jane doe", "qty"=>"2"},    {"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"},   {"title"=>"awesome book", "author"=>"john doe", "qty"=>"5"}, ]  def search(key, query)   some_stuff.select |record|      record[key].downcase.include? query    end.sort_by {|hash| hash[key]} end   pp search('author', 'jo') pp search('title', 'ru')  --output:-- [{"title"=>"awesome book", "author"=>"john doe", "qty"=>"5"},  {"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"}] [{"title"=>"ruby book", "author"=>"john hancock", "qty"=>"4"}] 

edit:

require 'pp'  class book    def title     @title   end    def title=(val)     @title = val   end    attr_accessor :author, :qty  #same above author, qty   some_stuff = [   book.new("ruby book", "john hancock", 4),   book.new("another book", "jane doe", 2),   book.new("awesome book", "john doe", 5), ]  def search(key, query)   some_stuff.select |book|      book.send(key).downcase.include? query    end.sort_by {|book| book.send(key)} end   pp search('author', 'jo') pp search('title', 'ru')   --output:--  [#<book:0x00000100929590 @author="john doe", @qty=5, @title="awesome book">,  #<book:0x00000100933270 @author="john hancock", @qty=4, @title="ruby book">] [#<book:0x00000100933270 @author="john hancock", @qty=4, @title="ruby book">] 

the send() method takes string/symbol (or variable containing string/symbol) argument, send() says, "hey ruby, call method specified on object left." need call method on object when have method name string common in lots of programming languages. ruby gives send() that.