Parse Array/Hash This was created out of the need to read arrays and hashes from files with out the worry of evaling injected script.

parse_array_hash.rb

  def parse_array *args
    if args.length > 0 ;  str = args[0] ;  else ;  str = self ;  end
    if str.to_s == "[]";  return [];  end
    str = str.strip.gsub(/^\[|\]$/, '')
    elements = [];  current_element = '';  nested_level = 0
    str.each_char do |c|
      if c == ',' && nested_level == 0
        elements << current_element.strip
        current_element = ''
      else
        current_element += c
        if c == '[';  nested_level += 1
        elsif c == ']';  nested_level -= 1
        end
      end
    end
  
    elements << current_element.strip
  
    elements.map do |element|
      if element.start_with?('"') && element.end_with?('"')
        element.gsub(/^"|"$/, '')
      elsif element.start_with?("'") && element.end_with?("'")
        element.gsub(/^'|'$/, '')
      elsif element =~ /\A\d+\z/
        element.to_i
      elsif element =~ /\A\d+\.\d+\z/
        element.to_f
      elsif element == 'true' || element == 'false'
        element == 'true'
      elsif element.start_with?('[') && element.end_with?(']')
        self.parse_array(element)
      elsif element.start_with?('{') && element.end_with?('}')
        self.parse_hash(element)
      else
        element
      end
    end
  end


  def parse_hash *args
    if args.length == 0;  str = self
    else;  str = args[0]
    end
    if str.to_s == "{}";  return {};  end
	
    str = str.strip.gsub(/^\{|\}$/, '')
    pairs = [];  current_key = '';   current_value = '';  nested_level = 0

    str.each_char do |c|
      if c == '>' && nested_level == 0
        current_key = current_value.gsub(/['":]\s*(\w+)\s*['":]?/, '\1');  current_key = current_key.delete(" =")
        current_value = ''
      elsif c == ',' && nested_level == 0
        pairs << [current_key, current_value.strip]
        current_key = ''
        current_value = ''
      else
        current_value += c
        if c == '{' || c == '['
          nested_level += 1
        elsif c == '}' || c == ']'
          nested_level -= 1
        end
      end
    end

    pairs << [current_key, current_value.strip]

    hash = {}
    pairs.each do |pair|
      key = pair[0]
      value = pair[1]

      if value.start_with?('{') && value.end_with?('}')
        hash[key] = value.parse_hash
      elsif value.start_with?('[') && value.end_with?(']')
        hash[key] = value.parse_array
      elsif value == 'true'
        hash[key] = true
      elsif value == 'false'
        hash[key] = false
      elsif value =~ /\A\d+\z/
        hash[key] = value.to_i
      elsif value =~ /\A\d+\.\d+\z/
        hash[key] = value.to_f
      else
        hash[key] = value.gsub(/^\"|\"$/, '')
      end
    end
	
    return hash
  end



}

So the whole deal was that for programs where i save config like [1,2,3].to_s to a file and just eval it when loading, you could always just insert
script in the file and make sure the last line is still the array and the script would run with out interupting the config load
this code processes the string characters of arrays and hashes to get objects back with out using eval, if code is injected the parsing will just fail.