On Oct 20, 2004, at 7:43 AM, Matt Maycock wrote: > a much better idea would be: > > DEFAULT_HASH = { ... } > def myFunc(arg1, ..., argN, optHash={}) > DEFAULT_HASH.keys.each {|k| > optHash[k] = DEFAULT_HASH[k] unless optHash.include?(k) > } > .... > end Or slightly simpler: DEFAULT_OPTIONS = { ... } def my_func( arg1, ... argN, options = { } ) options = DEFAULT_OPTIONS.merge(options) # ... end James Edward Gray II