From: don <donsdx@...>
Date: 2006-11-05T01:40:13+09:00
Subject: Re: Accessing a hash -- Beginner

On 2006-11-03, Jim Marshall wrote:
> 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.

[...]

>   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.

Excellent, Jim.  That's what I will do.

Thak you.  Take care.

Don