From: shibata.hiroshi@...
Date: 2015-01-08T00:02:10+00:00
Subject: [ruby-core:67413] [ruby-trunk - Bug #10713] [Rejected] Assigning default value for a Hash as an empty Array creating unpredictable results

Issue #10713 has been updated by Hiroshi SHIBATA.

Status changed from Open to Rejected

It's expected behavior

----------------------------------------
Bug #10713: Assigning default value for a Hash as an empty Array creating unpredictable results
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/10713#change-50845

* Author: Arvinder Singh
* Status: Rejected
* Priority: Normal
* Assignee: 
* Category: core
* Target version: current: 2.2.0
* ruby -v: ruby 2.2.0p0 (2014-12-25 revision 49005) [x86_64-darwin14]
* Backport: 2.0.0: UNKNOWN, 2.1: UNKNOWN, 2.2: UNKNOWN
----------------------------------------
Creating a Hash with a default value works fine, unless the default value is an empty Array.

E.g. the following returns an empty Hash...

~~~
irb(main):001:0> letters = Hash.new([])
=> {}
irb(main):002:0> letters[:a] << 1
=> [1]
irb(main):003:0> letters[:a] << 2
=> [1, 2]
irb(main):004:0> letters[:a]
=> [1, 2]
irb(main):005:0> letters
=> {}
~~~

whereas the following code explicitly defining hash keys works.

~~~
irb(main):001:0> letters = {a: [], b: []}
=> {:a=>[], :b=>[]}
irb(main):002:0> letters[:a] << 1
=> [1]
irb(main):003:0> letters[:a] << 2
=> [1, 2]
irb(main):004:0> letters[:a]
=> [1, 2]
irb(main):005:0> letters
=> {:a=>[1, 2], :b=>[]}
~~~

Is this an unpredictable(bug) or an expected behavior(feature). I tend to lean towards the former, but I might be wrong.



-- 
https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/