Unique construct for passing a hash

Question

I have never seen this construct for building a hash. do_stuff(records: records) Does this only work in a parameter list being sent to a method? Is it documented an

Answer 1

The new syntax for Hashes in Ruby 1.9 allows you to drop the hash rocket.

#Pre 1.9
{:key => value}

#1.9+
{key: value}

Both of the above are equivalent.

One thing to keep in mind when using the new hash syntax is that the key will always be treated as a symbol.