Ruby 1.9 hash with a dash in a key

Question

In ruby 1.9 is there a way to define this hash with the new syntax?

irb> { a:  2 }
=> {:a=>2}

irb> { a-b:  2 }
SyntaxError: (irb):5: syntax erro         


        

Answer 1

To use dashes with the new syntax:

<%= link_to "Link", link_path, {data: {something: 'value1', somethingelse: 'value2'}} %>

This will generate:

Link

This might not exactly be your particular use case, but I found this post while trying to find an answer myself so I thought I'd share my findings.