Re: Ruby Koans regarding Hashes.

7stud -- wrote in post #1090450:

>
> 1) You never write
>
> Hash.new([])
>
> .. (or with any other mutable type as the argument) because the same
> array is the default for every key, and that is never useful.
>

That makes sense, and I got that same uselessness feeling when I saw the
assertions made against different indexes.

>
> This is what you want:
>
> hash = Hash.new {|hash, key| hash[key] = []}
>
> hash[:one] << 'hello'
> hash[:two] << 'goodbye'
>
> p hash
>
> --output:--
> {:one=>["hello"], :two=>["goodbye"]}
>

That was actually the very next test block in that "about_hashes.rb"
Koans file:

  def test_default_value_with_block
    hash = Hash.new {|hash, key| hash[key] = [] }

    hash[:one] << "uno"
    hash[:two] << "dos"

    assert_equal ["uno"], hash[:one]
    assert_equal ["dos"], hash[:two]
    assert_equal [], hash[:three]
  end

>
> In this case, the block executes *every time* you access a
> non-existent key, and the block creates a new array
> and assigns it to the key, *and* the return value is a
> reference to the array that was assigned to the key.
> As a result, all you need to do is append to the array.
>

This is one of those "I get it, but then I do not get it" paradoxes.  I
understand whatever is returned from the block is assigned to "hash",
right?  So, inside the block, a hash key is generated with an array as
its value:

hash[key] = []

But, since an append method was used, the value being appended, in this
case "uno" or "dos", now becomes the value for whatever key index, :one
or :two, is provided:

hash[:one] = ["uno"]

Since the block is executed every time, a new array object is created,
so each key has different array object id.  So this:

hash = hash[:one] = ["uno"]

Did this:

Unique array id  ([]), appended with a string ("uno"), assigned to hash
key (:one), assigned to variable (hash).

> It can be useful to use the first type of hash creator with non-mutable
> types as an argument:
>
> hash = Hash.new 0
>
> hash[:one] += 1
> hash[:two] += 1
>
> p hash
>
> --output:--
> {:one=>1, :two=>1}

Or as an accumulator:

>> hash = Hash.new 0
=> {}
>> hash[:one]
=> 0
>> hash[:one] += 1
=> 1
>> hash[:one]
=> 1
>> hash[:one] += 1
=> 2
>> hash[:one] += 1
=> 3
>> hash[:one] += 1
=> 4

...which I currently have no idea how that could be useful, but it is
still interesting...  heh

Looks like I am not the only one that found that Ruby Koans lesson a bit
confusing:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9537714/rubykoans-confusing-hash-example
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9343680/how-does-shovel-operator-work-in-ruby-hashes/9343737#9343737

Thanks, that helped clear some things up.

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