From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2011-12-09T15:11:19+09:00
Subject: Re: How can I do h["foo"] += "bar" if h["foo"] does not exist?


On Dec 8, 2011, at 22:03 , Peter Zotov wrote:

> Andrew S. писал 09.12.2011 09:58:
>> Hi there,
>> 
>> I have a hash with various keys and values that are strings.
>> 
>> If the key exists, the following works: h["foo"] += "bar"
>> 
>> But if the key does not exist, I get an error.
>> 
>> Is it possible _in one statement_ to cover both the cases where the key
>> does exist (as above) AND the case where the key does not exist - and in
>> this situation I'd like the new key and value pair to be created in the
>> hash.
>> 
>> Any help gratefully received!
>> 
>> - A
> 
> $ irb
> ruby-1.9.3-p0 :001 > hash = Hash.new("")
> => {}
> ruby-1.9.3-p0 :002 > hash[:a] = "test"
> => "test"
> ruby-1.9.3-p0 :003 > hash[:a] += " - one"
> => "test - one"
> ruby-1.9.3-p0 :004 > hash[:b] += "nothing - two"
> => "nothing - two"
> ruby-1.9.3-p0 :005 > hash
> => {:a=>"test - one", :b=>"nothing - two"}

This is bad. Very bad.

irb(main):007:0> hash[:d] << "blah"
=> "blah"
irb(main):008:0> hash[:e] += " blah"
=> "blah blah"
irb(main):009:0> hash
=> {:b=>"nothing - two", :e=>"blah blah", :c=>"blah", :a=>"test - one"}

Make sure you use the block form initializer whenever you have a mutable default object.