From: Jimi Damon <jdamon@...>
Date: 2007-12-08T09:17:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Problem with Hash of Arrays

How do you suggest creating new Hash entries where by default I want 
them to be Arrays ?


In Perl I can easily  ( albeit it is ugly ) type


push ( @{$hash{key}}, "New value")


This works as long as $hash{key} has either not been defined yet...or if 
it is already an anonymous Array.

How can you use operators such as "Push" , or "<<" on a hash key/value 
pair when the key has not been defined yet for the hash ?   I want a 
constructor for each "value" to make it an Array.

PLease note, I don't want to write

if hash.has_key?("key").nil?
   hash["key"] = ["new value"]
else
   hash["key"].push( "new value" )
end

Thanks for any suggestions and also for straightening me out about 
"Default" values.


However, really what I am looking for is a default constructore for the 
blank value.



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