refactor_long_conditional.rb

# What I want to do is take a string like "some_attribute <= 5" and be able to parse that into SQL
# The string will only ever have one operation so I need to check for the inclusion of any valid opperator
# and build a SQL string  based on that.

# initial conditional method
def build_sql_string
  @final_sql_array = sql_array.map(&:strip).map do |string|
    if string.include?(":")
      q = string.split(":")
      "(similarity((data->>'#{q[0].strip}')::text, '#{q[1].strip}') > .5 OR " +
      "(data->>'#{q[0].strip}')::text ILIKE '%#{q[1].strip}%')"
    elsif [">=", "<=", ">", "<"].any? { |join| string.include? join }
      q = string.gsub(/\s+/m, ' ').strip.split(" ")
      "(data->>'#{q[0].strip}')::int #{q[1]} #{q[2]}"
    elsif ["=", "!="].any? {|equal_opp| string.include?(equal_opp) }
      q = string.gsub(/\s+/m, ' ').strip.split(" ")
      "(data->>'#{q[0].strip}')::text #{q[1]} '#{q[2]}'"
    elsif string == "||"
      " OR "
    elsif string == "&&"
      " AND "
    else
      string
    end
  end
end

# after refactor 
def build_sql_string
  @final_sql_array = sql_array.map(&:strip).map do |string|
    SqlString.call(string)
  end
end

class SqlString
  OperatorMapping = {
    "<=" => :compare_query, ">=" => :compare_query, "<" => :compare_query,
    ">" => :compare_query, "=" => :equal_query, "!=" => :equal_query,
    "||" => :or_join, "&&" => :and_join, ":" => :like_query
  }

  attr_reader :sql_string

  def self.call(sql_string)
    new(sql_string).call
  end

  def initialize(sql_string)
    @sql_string = sql_string
  end

  def call
    operator = sql_string.scan(matchers)
    if operator.size == 1
      send OperatorMapping[operator.first]
    end
  end
  
  def like_query
    # build sql here
  end
  
  private

  def matchers
    Regexp.union(/<=/, />=/, /</, />/, /=/, /!=/, /\|\|/, /&&/, /:/)
  end
  
end

Hey Mike, perhaps you should look at this parser. It creates an AST for SQL which means you can go from string, to AST, back to an SQL string. https://github.com/rom-rb/sql