I'm using koala to get the following JSON object from facebook: @friends = [{"name"=>"Jolie Chide", "gender"=>"female", "id"=>"4216323"}, {"name"=>"Seth Spring", "gender"=>"male", "id"=>"3429277"}] What I would like to do is the following: <% @friends.where(:gender == "female").order("@friends['name'] ASC").each do |friend| %> <%= friend['name'] %> <% end %> **As you know, this will not work.** I'm used to standard Ruby objects and not with the JSON above. If anyone has any advice on how to get the above to work, even if it means converting the data from JSON, that would be great. Thanks for any help.