Ahhh, I've got to read up on that asterisk thing.

Anyways, so far here is the winner in the performance game:

def park_readfile 
   h = Hash.new 
   file = File.new("keys") 
   while line = file.gets 
     h = Hash[*line.chomp!.tr!('=', ',').split(',')] 
     # do stuff here... 
     h.clear 
   end 
 end 
 
                  user     system      total        real 
park:         5.023438   0.093750   5.117188 (  5.231126) 
original:    11.398438   0.101562  11.500000 ( 11.652009) 

quite a difference!
-joe

> -----Original Message-----
> From: dave / thomases.com [mailto:dave / thomases.com]
> Sent: Friday, December 15, 2000 9:37 PM
> To: ruby-talk ML
> Subject: [ruby-talk:7403] Re: Ruby performance question
> 
> 
> "Joseph McDonald" <joe / vpop.net> writes:
> 
> > I take it back (again).  it does not appear that an array
> > is automatically converted into a hash.  sorry for talking
> > to myself in front of you all :-0
> 
> But you can use the [] constructor
> 
>    Hash[1,2,3,4]		# => {1=>2, 3=>4}
> 
>    Hash[*"a=b,c=d,e=f".tr('=', ',').split(',')]
>                                 # => {"e"=>"f", "a"=>"b", "c"=>"d"}
> 
> (note the asterisk...)
> 
> 
> Regards
> 
> 
> Dave
>