[ruby-talk:6683] Re: printing/accessing arrays and hashes

On Fri, 1 Dec 2000, Raja S. wrote:

> 
> These are just a snap shot of my "huh? -> aha!" transition as I learn more
> about the ruby way of thinking.  
> 
> Raja
	[...]
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Quirk:    Printing hash literals as the first argument to print causes
>           syntax problems: 
> 
>           print {'a'=>1, 'b'=>2}
> 
> Fix:      Precede by an empty string.
>           print "", {'a'=>1, 'b'=>2}

or put brackets around it:
irb(main):001:0> print ( { "a" => "b" } )
abnil

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Problem:  Default printing behavior (i.e., #to_s) of arrays/hashes doesn't
>           show structure
> 
> Fix:      Using #inspect
	[...] 
> Comment:  irb shows the structure when evaluating arrays/hashes
> 
>           Shouldn't this be the default printing behavior of ruby?  i.e.,
>           shouldn't the default #to_s of arrays and hashes show their
>           structure?

I think not.  You can read in a load of lines from a file into
an array.  Then later you can print them all out at once without
an interator.  

	Hugh