From: Martin DeMello <martindemello@...>
Date: 2012-05-01T06:26:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Question about array of hashes

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 1:52 PM, Ralph Shnelvar <ralphs@dos32.com> wrote:
> irb(main):001:0> kitty_toys =
> irb(main):002:0* [:shape => 'sock', :fabric => 'cashmere'] +
> irb(main):003:0* [:shape => 'mouse', :fabric => 'calico'] +
> irb(main):004:0* [:shape => 'eggroll', :fabric => 'chenille']
> => [{:shape=>"sock", :fabric=>"cashmere"}, {:shape=>"mouse", :fabric=>"calico"}, {:shape=>"eggroll", :fabric=>"chenille"}]
> irb(main):024:0> kitty_toys.size
> => 3
>
> Why is the kitty_toys syntax even legal?

If a series of key:value pairs are the last elements in an argument
list, they get collected into a single hash. It's basically the method
call hash argument collection, being applied to the [] method here.
See
http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/tut_methods.html

martin