How can I initialize an Array inside a Hash in Ruby

Question

I am trying to initialize a Hash of Arrays such as

@my_hash = Hash.new(Array.new)

so that I can:

@my_hash[\"hello\"].push(\         


        

Answer 1

The argument for Hash.new is for the default value for new hash keys, so when you pass it a reference that reference will be used for new hash keys. You're updating that reference when you call...

hash["key"].push "value"

You need to pass a new reference into the hash key before pushing values to it...

hash["key1"] = Array.new
hash["key1"].push "value1"
hash["key2"] = Array.new
hash["key2"].push "value2

You could try encapsulating this into a helper method as well.