From: James Britt <jamesUNDERBARb@...>
Date: 2004-11-03T06:55:38+09:00
Subject: Re: Converting hash keys to symbols

Jamis Buck wrote:
> Golf question...
> 
> Is there an elegant way of converting all of the keys of a hash to a 
> symbol? The solution can assume that the existing keys are either 
> strings or symbols. Also, if a key is a string, it may contain a dash 
> character which must be converted to an underscore.
> 
> Something like this, only more elegant, would be nice:
> 
>   a = some_hash_of_strings_and_symbols
>   new_a = Hash[*a.collect { |k,v|
>     k = k.gsub(/-/,"_").intern if k.is_a?(String)
>     [k,v] }.flatten]
> 
> Any takers?
> 
> - Jamis
> 

I'd be inclined to add 'intern' to Symbol, and just call intern on 
everything in the key set.  If you get a Symbol, then Symbol#intern just 
returns self.

And override intern in String to do character subs.

James