CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubyhash
Snowcrash
Snowcrash

Reputation: 86197

Accessing elements of a ruby data structure

I've got a ruby data structure that looks like this:

my_item
=> {:data_id=>"some id",
 :description=>
  "some description",
 :time=>"some time",
 :name=>"some name"}

I assume it's a hash but if I try and access the data I get nil back. e.g.:

puts my_item['name']

=> nil

How do you access the elements?

Upvotes: 1

Views: 106

Answers (2)

GoBusto
GoBusto

Reputation: 4788

Strings and symbols aren't the same thing. If you use a symbol (:name) as an index, you can't access it with a string:

foo = { :name => 'Hello' }
puts foo[:name]  # => "Hello"
puts foo['name']  # => nil

Likewise, you can't use a symbol to access an element if a string ('name') is used:

bar = { 'name' => 'World' }
puts bar[:name]  # => nil
puts bar['name']  # => "World"

Note that Ruby on Rails does allow strings and symbols to be interchanged to some degree - see the HashWithIndifferentAccess documentation.

Upvotes: 2

Yu Hao
Yu Hao

Reputation: 122423

my_item is a Hash, whose keys are all symbols (e.g, :name), while you are using a string ('name') as the key.

my_item[:name]
# => "some name"

Upvotes: 1

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