how can i use regex to pass this rspec test?

Question

I am having some trouble getting a rspec test to pass. My method has passed all the other tests for it except the last one which requires that a word/hash pair be returned if the keyword matches the argument or if the keyword has the same prefix (if a prefix is the argument). In the latter case, If there is more than one match, then the returned hash should include them all. As is, the code that I have is returning the entire hash, so it seems that maybe the regex is not being compared? I have tried multiple ways of doing this but here are two, the first one being what I reverted back to because it has passed the most tests.

def find(word)
    returns = {}
    if @entries.empty? 
    @entries 
    else 
      @entries.select{|key, value| if key.scan(/word/) then @entries[key] = value  end } 
    end
  end

which returned the fail:

1) Dictionary finds multiple matches from a prefix and returns the entire entry (keyword + definition)                                                          
     Failure/Error: @d.find('fi').should == {'fish' => 'aquatic animal', 'fiend' => 'wicked person'}                                                              
       expected: {"fish"=>"aquatic animal", "fiend"=>"wicked person"}                                                                                             
            got: {"fish"=>"aquatic animal", "fiend"=>"wicked person", "great"=>"remarkable"} (using ==)  

------------------------------------------------

My next attempt:

def find(word_or_prefix)
    returns = {}
    if @entries.empty? 
      return @entries 
    else 
      @entries.select{|key, value| if (/word_or_prefix/ =~ key) then returns <<  @entries[key] = value  end } 
    end
    returns
  end

returned the fail:

1) Dictionary finds an entry                                                                                                                                    
     Failure/Error: @d.find('fish').should == {'fish' => 'aquatic animal'}                                                                                        
       expected: {"fish"=>"aquatic animal"}                                                                                                        
            got: {} (using ==)                                                                                                                                    
       Diff:                                                                                                                                                      
       @@ -1,2 +1 @@                                                                                                                                              
       -"fish" => "aquatic animal",                                                                                                                               

What is the best way to use a regex to get this code to pass? And why isn't my current code passing?

While there are a total of 4 test blocks concerning the find method, is the one (the 4th) that I am having the troubles with:

 it 'finds multiple matches from a prefix and returns the entire entry (keyword + definition)' do
    @d.add('fish' => 'aquatic animal')
    @d.add('fiend' => 'wicked person')
    @d.add('great' => 'remarkable')
    @d.find('fi').should == {'fish' => 'aquatic animal', 'fiend' => 'wicked person'}
  end 

Answer 1

I think you're looking for:

@entries.select{|key, value| key[/#{word}/] }