From: "Bartosz Dziewoński" <matma.rex@...>
Date: 2012-02-12T23:49:45+09:00
Subject: Re: the ruby syntax

2012/2/12 maven apache <apachemaven0@gmail.com>:
> But in the ruby document:http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/
>
> Definiation of a hash should  like this:
>
> {'key'=>'value'.....}
>
> Now in the IO.new exmaple,it is written as {key:value}.  Is the ':' symbol
> same as '=>'?? I do not find it is methioned in any document.

There are two ways to define a hash.

First is, as you are saying, {key => value}, where both key and value
can be anything. {'key' => 'value'} is okay (key and value are
strings), but for example this is also valid: { [1,2] => {3 => 4} }
(here key is an array, value is another hash).

The second way, introduced in Ruby 1.9, is {key: value}. Value is
still an arbitrary Ruby value, but the key is converted to a Symbol -
so this: {key: value} is equivalent to this: {:key => value}. The
second method is less typing, so it's more often used now, when you
don't care about compatibility with Ruby 1.8, and you are fine with
your keys all being symbols.

You can also mix both styles in a single hash definition.

-- Matma Rex