Initializing hashes

Question

I frequently write something like this:

a_hash[\'x\'] ? a_hash[\'x\'] += \' some more text\' : a_hash[\'x\'] = \'first text\'

There ought to be

Answer 1

The constructor of Hash, in its first argument, have a default value for the keys. This way

>> a_hash = Hash.new "first text"
=> {}
>> a_hash['a']
=> "first text"
>> a_hash['b'] += ", edit"
=> "first text, edit"