On Fri, Dec 5, 2008 at 9:26 AM, Damaris Fuentes <dfl_maradentro / yahoo.es> wrote:
> Hi you all,
>
> I have the following code,where I have a hash whose entries are
> initalized by an empty Array:
>
> h = Hash.new(Array.new(0))
> h["a"] << 0
> h["b"] << 6
> h["a"] << 5
> h["b"] << 10
> p h["a"]
> p h["b"]
>
> Both "p" prints the same: [0,6,5,10]
> What am I doing wrong? (I want h["a"] to be [0,5] and h["b"]=[6,10]

That form of Hash.new does not create a different new Array for each
new hash key, it creates a single Array instance to which all new hash
keys refer. You might prefer the block form of Hash.new.

irb(main):001:0> h = Hash.new(Array.new(0))
=> {}
irb(main):002:0> h[:a] << 0
=> [0]
irb(main):003:0> h[:b] << 1
=> [0, 1]
irb(main):004:0> h[:a].object_id
=> 1073560370
irb(main):005:0> h[:b].object_id
=> 1073560370
irb(main):006:0> g = Hash.new{|hash, key| hash[key] = Array.new(0)}
=> {}
irb(main):007:0> g[:a] << 0
=> [0]
irb(main):008:0> g[:b] << 1
=> [1]
irb(main):009:0> g[:a].object_id
=> 1073475250
irb(main):010:0> g[:b].object_id
=> 1073464620
irb(main):011:0> g[:a] << 4
=> [0, 4]
irb(main):012:0> g[:b] << 5
=> [1, 5]

-Michael C. Libby