Ruby value of a hash key?

Question

I've got a list of values that are in a Ruby hash. Is there a way to check the value of the key and if it equals "X", then do "Y"?

I can test to see if the hash has a key using hash.has_key?, but now I need to know if hash.key == "X" then...?

Answer 1

Hashes are indexed using the square brackets ([]). Just as arrays. But instead of indexing with the numerical index, hashes are indexed using either the string literal you used for the key, or the symbol. So if your hash is similar to

hash = { "key1" => "value1", "key2" => "value2" } 

you can access the value with

hash["key1"] 

or for

hash = { :key1 => "value1", :key2 => "value2"} 

or the new format supported in Ruby 1.9

hash = { key1: "value1", key2: "value2" } 

you can access the value with

hash[:key1]