From: Farrel Lifson <farrel.lifson@...>
Date: 2006-04-20T18:21:03+09:00
Subject: Re: Write Out Then Read In Hash of Two-element Arrays

Instead of writing your own de/serialization code why not give
Marshal.dump and Marshal.load  a try:

>> dumped_histHash = Marshal.dump(histHash)
=> "\004\010{\ni\000[\ai\017i\006i\006[\ai\020i\ai\a[\ai\021i\010i\010[\ai\022i\
ti\t[\ai\023i\n"
>> loaded_histHash = Marshal.load(dumped_histHash)
=> {0=>[10, 1], 1=>[11, 2], 2=>[12, 3], 3=>[13, 4], 4=>[14, 5]}

If you need a human readable/editable file consider using YAML:

>> require 'yaml'
=> true
>> puts yaml_histHash = histHash.to_yaml
---
0:
  - 10
  - 1
1:
  - 11
  - 2
2:
  - 12
  - 3
3:
  - 13
  - 4
4:
  - 14
  - 5
=> nil
>> loaded_histHash = YAML.load(yaml_histHash)
=> {0=>[10, 1], 1=>[11, 2], 2=>[12, 3], 3=>[13, 4], 4=>[14, 5]}

Farrel