Clojure: Convert hash-maps key strings to keywords?

You can also use the clojure.walk library to achieve the desired result with the function keywordize-keys

(use 'clojure.walk)
(keywordize-keys {"name" "Tylenol", "how" "instructions"})
;=> {:name "Tylenol", :how "instructions"}

This will walk the map recursively as well so it will "keywordize" keys in nested map too

http://clojuredocs.org/clojure_core/clojure.walk/keywordize-keys

There is a handy function called keyword that converts Strings into the appropriate keywords:

(keyword "foo")
=> :foo

So it's just a case of transforming all the keys in your map using this function.

I'd probably use a list comprehension with destructuring to do this, something like:

(into {} 
  (for [[k v] my-map] 
    [(keyword k) v]))

I agree with djhworld, clojure.walk/keywordize-keys is what you want.

It's worth peeking at the source code of clojure.walk/keywordize-keys:

(defn keywordize-keys
  "Recursively transforms all map keys from strings to keywords."
  [m]
  (let [f (fn [[k v]] (if (string? k) [(keyword k) v] [k v]))]
    (clojure.walk/postwalk (fn [x] (if (map? x) (into {} (map f x)) x)) m)))

The inverse transform is sometimes handy for java interop:

(defn stringify-keys
  "Recursively transforms all map keys from keywords to strings."
  [m]
  (let [f (fn [[k v]] (if (keyword? k) [(name k) v] [k v]))]
    (clojure.walk/postwalk (fn [x] (if (map? x) (into {} (map f x)) x)) m)))