From: Tim Hunter <TimHunter@...>
Date: 2007-09-17T02:51:37+09:00
Subject: Re: bug with assignment?

Mukund wrote:
> The snippet illustrates my question.
> 
> a={}
> b={}
> a["alpha"]=b["alpha"]=[]
> a["alpha"]<<23
> b["alpha"]<<100
> puts a["alpha"]
> puts b["alpha"]
> 
> Here a["alpha"] and b["alpha"] both contain an array of [23,100].
> Why??
> 
> If I remove the multiple assignment,
> a={}
> b={}
> a["alpha"]=[]
> b["alpha"]=[]
> a["alpha"]<<23
> b["alpha"]<<100
> puts a["alpha"]
> puts b["alpha"]
> 
> 
> a["alpha"] contains 23 and b["alpha"] contains 100 as I expected.
> 
> 
Because, in the first case, both a["alpha"] and b["alpha"] refer to the 
same array. You simply have two different ways of referring to it.

In the second case, the code constructs two different arrays.

-- 
RMagick OS X Installer [http://rubyforge.org/projects/rmagick/]
RMagick Hints & Tips [http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=1618]
RMagick Installation FAQ [http://rmagick.rubyforge.org/install-faq.html]