> Also, for > the vast majority of arrays which don't contain characters the behavior > isn't expected. I think you may be making some strong assumptions about the vast majority of arrays :) I don't really know, but my guess is by now, changing this behavior could have a big impact an existing code, especially code that is concerned with processing data per character. And one of the great things about Ruby, is you can redefine this behavior, put it in a personal lib and then always require that lib: # code not tested class Array def to_s res = '' each do |element| res << ', ' if !res.empty? res << element end res end end class Hash def to_s # .... end end -- Chris http://clabs.org/blogki -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Free solo piano album (mp3) http://cministries.org/cstudios/blackandwhite.htm