From: Jim Marshall <marshall.jim@...>
Date: 2006-11-04T16:00:08+09:00
Subject: Re: Accessing a hash -- Beginner

On 2006-11-04, don <donsdx@gmailSPAMBAD.invalid> wrote:
>
> I have 32 hashes. I would like to key in a hash name and 
> extract data from it.  Like this:
>
>   Enter team:  (Enter 'ari', for example)
>   team_var = gets.chomp
>   puts team_var['coach']

You could stick (or create from the beginning) those hashes into another
hash, say "teams," and then you'll be able to get them by indexing
"teams" with user input.

>
> Above does not work.  For one thing, ari is actually $ari.
>   team_var = '$' + team_var does not work either.
>
> So simply put, how do you call a hash by name interactively?
>
> Below is an example of what my code would look like:
>
> $ari = {
>   'name' => 'Arizona Cardinals',
>   'team_notes' => 'skank team',
>   'qb' => 'Matt Leinart, Kurt Warner',
>   'qb_rank' => '',
>   'cbs' => '',
>   'espn' => '',
>   'players' => 'rb Edgerrin James',
>   'coach' => 'Denny Green',
>   'weekly_notes' => ' wk01 Fitzgerald 133 yds.'
> }
>

  teams = {} # Create a new hash to store the individual team hashes
  teams['ari'] = $ari

>   print 'team: '
>   team = gets.chomp
then change the above^ to
    team = teams[gets.chomp]
and you can proceed with

>   puts team['coach']
>

You'll still want some error-checking (what if the user enters
'akaskdfj'?), of course.

You can also now access the elements of the individual teams like
"teams['ari']['coach']" if you want, although it will often be less
cluttered-looking if you pull a reference to the individual team out
before you go to work on it, as "team = teams[gets.chomp]" does.