# Accessing hash values

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 2, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766 "2009-09-02T00:29:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/df-sean)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766/1 "2009-09-02T00:29:06Z")

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Hi all, this is my first post to the Ruby Forum. Cheers. And thanks for  
helping out a newb.

Quesiton: How do you access multiple values from a hash?

For Example, I have a hash of computer names, and their associated user.

the\_system = {  
“computer-01”=\>“jill”,  
“computer-02”=\>“jack”,  
“computer-03”=\>“bob”  
}

If I want to access the user of one machine, this works great:

puts the\_system[“computer-01”]  
=\>jill

But how do I return multiple user names? (The below throws an error:  
‘wrong number of arguments’.)

puts the\_system[“computer-01”, “computer-02”]

Thanks.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/df-sean)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766/2 "2009-09-02T00:48:26Z")

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Sean S.on wrote:

> But how do I return multiple user names? (The below throws an error:  
> ‘wrong number of arguments’.)
> 
> puts the\_system[“computer-01”, “computer-02”]

the\_system.values\_at(“computer-01”, “computer-02”)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/df-sean)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766/3 "2009-09-02T00:50:47Z")

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El Miércoles, 2 de Septiembre de 2009, Sean S.on escribió:

> ```
> "computer-03"=>"bob"
> 
> ```
> 
> ‘wrong number of arguments’.)
> 
> puts the\_system[“computer-01”, “computer-02”]

the\_system.values\_at(“computer-01”,“computer-02”)

=\> [“jill”, “jack”]

Note that it returns an Array.

Note: Tested in Ruby1.9 but not in 1.8.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/df-sean)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766/4 "2009-09-02T00:50:53Z")

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Joel VanderWerf wrote:

> Sean S.on wrote:
> 
> > But how do I return multiple user names? (The below throws an error:  
> > ‘wrong number of arguments’.)
> > 
> > puts the\_system[“computer-01”, “computer-02”]
> 
> the\_system.values\_at(“computer-01”, “computer-02”)

AWESOME! Thanks for the quick reply Joel.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/f07891/32.png) [@df-sean](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/df-sean)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/accessing-hash-values/174766/5 "2009-09-02T00:54:40Z")

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Iñaki Baz C. wrote:

> El Miércoles, 2 de Septiembre de 2009, Sean S.on escribió:
> 
> > ```
> > "computer-03"=>"bob"
> > 
> > ```
> > 
> > ‘wrong number of arguments’.)
> > 
> > puts the\_system[“computer-01”, “computer-02”]
> 
> the\_system.values\_at(“computer-01”,“computer-02”)
> 
> =\> [“jill”, “jack”]
> 
> Note that it returns an Array.
> 
> Note: Tested in Ruby1.9 but not in 1.8.

And thanks to you as well Iñaki.