Clojure kebab case on selected keywords - clojure

Question

I want to change certain key's in a large map in clojure.
These key's can be present at any level in the map but will always be within a required-key
I was looking at using camel-snake-kebab library but need it to change only a given set of keys in the required-key map. It doesn't matter if the change is made in json or the map
(def my-map {:allow_kebab_or-snake {:required-key {:must_be_kebab ""}}
:allow_kebab_or-snake2 {:optional-key {:required-key {:must_be_kebab ""}}}})
currently using /walk/postwalk-replace but fear it may change keys not nested within the :required-key map
(walk/postwalk-replace {:must_be_kebab :must-be-kebab} my-map))

Answer 1

ummmm.. could you clarify: do you want to change the keys of the map?! or their associated values?
off-topic: your map above is not correct (having two identical keys :allow_kebab_or_snake - i-m assuming you're just underlining the point and not showing the actual example :))
postwalk-replace WILL replace any occurrence of the key with the value.
so if you know the exact map struct you could first select your sub-struct with get-in and then use postwalk-replace :
(walk/postwalk-replace {:must_be_kebab :mus-be-kebab}
(get-in my-map [:allow_kebab_or_snake :required-key]))
But then you'll have to assoc this into your initial map.
You should also consider the walk function and construct your own particular algorithm if the interleaved DS is too complex.

Answer 2

Here is a solution. Since you need to control when the conversion does/doesn't occur, you can't just use postwalk. You need to implement your own recursion and change the context from non-convert -> convert when your condition is found.
(ns tst.clj.core
(:use clj.core clojure.test tupelo.test)
(:require
[clojure.string :as str]
[clojure.pprint :refer [pprint]]
[tupelo.core :as t]
[tupelo.string :as ts]
))
(t/refer-tupelo)
(t/print-versions)
(def my-map
{:allow_kebab_or-snake {:required-key {:must_be_kebab ""}}
:allow_kebab_or-snake2 {:optional-key {:required-key {:must_be_kebab ""}}}})
(defn children->kabob? [kw]
(= kw :required-key))
(defn proc-child-maps
[ctx map-arg]
(apply t/glue
(for [curr-key (keys map-arg)]
(let [curr-val (grab curr-key map-arg)
new-ctx (if (children->kabob? curr-key)
(assoc ctx :snake->kabob true)
ctx)
out-key (if (grab :snake->kabob ctx)
(ts/kw-snake->kabob curr-key)
curr-key)
out-val (if (map? curr-val)
(proc-child-maps new-ctx curr-val)
curr-val)]
{out-key out-val}))))
(defn nested-keys->snake
[arg]
(let [ctx {:snake->kabob false}]
(if (map? arg)
(proc-child-maps ctx arg)
arg)))
The final result is shown in the unit test:
(is= (nested-keys->snake my-map)
{:allow_kebab_or-snake
{:required-key
{:must-be-kebab ""}},
:allow_kebab_or-snake2
{:optional-key
{:required-key
{:must-be-kebab ""}}}} ))
For this solution I used some of the convenience functions in the Tupelo library.

Answer 3

Just a left of field suggestion which may or may not work. This is a problem that can come up when dealing with SQL databases because the '-' is seen as a reserved word and cannot be used in identifiers. However, it is common to use '-' in keywords when using clojure. Many abstraction layers used when working with SQL in clojure take maps as arguments/bindings for prepared statements etc.
Ideally, what is needed is another layer of abstraction which converts between kebab and snake case as needed depending on the direction you are going i.e. to sql or from sql. The advantage of this aproach is your not walking through maps making conversions - you do the conversion 'on the fly" when it is needed.
Have a look at https://pupeno.com/2015/10/23/automatically-converting-case-between-sql-and-clojure/