From: azrael@...
Date: 2006-04-04T21:57:40+09:00
Subject: Re: Order in Hashes

> 
> BTW: Why is ruby doing this anyways...?!
> 

A Hash is an unsorted container; It is a widely-used algorithm that
makes no guarantees about the order of keys to optimise reading times at
the expense of insertion. 

As with all algorithms, if the container doesn't have the
characteristics you want, then you are using the wrong container. 

There's a Wikipedia article here on Hash Tables:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hash_table

I would suggest that what you're looking for is not a Hash at all,
but simply a List.

Martin