# Hash problem

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 1, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252 "2010-09-01T17:37:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/capi)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252/1 "2010-09-01T17:37:27Z")

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Hi all,

I’m sure that there is somewhere an explanation on how this works but I  
can’t find it by myself.

I need to have a hash like this one:

{“name”:“Admiral Ackbar”},{“name”:“Bail Organa”}

so I need a hash with hashes inside.

If I make

myhash.merge ({“name” =\> “Bail Organa”})

all I get it’s just the last pair, since it’s updating it everytime.

How can I have a hash like the first one?

I’m sure someone had this problem before.

Thanks in advance.

Regards,  
Antonio

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/capi)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:43pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252/2 "2010-09-01T17:43:50Z")

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Firstly hash notation is {“name” =\> “Admiral Ackbar”} and not  
{“name”:“Admiral Ackbar”} (are you thinking about PHP or Python by  
chance?)

To be honest it looks more like you need an Array of hashes.

data = Array.new  
data \<\< {“name” =\> “Admiral Ackbar”}  
data \<\< {“name” =\> “Bail Organa”}

puts data.inspect  
=\> [{“name”=\>“Admiral Ackbar”}, {“name”=\>“Bail Organa”}]

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/capi)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252/3 "2010-09-01T17:55:32Z")

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Hi Peter  
You have to do something like this:

hash = {}  
hash[:name] = ‘Senyi’  
array = []  
array \<\< hash  
hash2 = {}  
hash2[:name] = ‘Peter’  
array \<\< hash2

=\> [{:name=\>“Senyi”}, {:name=\>“Peter”}]

I hope it helps you  
Senyi

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/capi)\
**Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252/4 "2010-09-01T19:31:25Z")

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Antonio Fernández vara wrote:

> I need to have a hash like this one:
> 
> {“name”:“Admiral Ackbar”},{“name”:“Bail Organa”}

Why a hash? If it only contains names, then why not

names = [“Admiral Ackbar”, “Bail Organa”]

Or so you want a hash with multiple values for one key:  
{“name”=\>[“Admiral Ackbar”,“Bail Organa”]}

myhash = Hash.new { |h,k| h[k] = [] }

myhash[“name”] \<\< “Admiral Ackbar”  
myhash[“name”] \<\< “Bail Organa”

Otherwise, as others have suggested, an array of hashes:

[{“name”=\>“Admiral Ackbar”,“age”=\>30},  
{“name”=\>“Bail Organa”,“age”=\>65}]

Or choose some attribute as a key, like id

{ 1 =\> {“name”=\>“Admiral Ackbar”,“age”=\>30},  
2 =\> {“name”=\>“Bail Organa”,“age”=\>65}}

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/bbce88/32.png) [@capi](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/capi)\
**Post date:** [September 2, 2010, 12:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/hash-problem/194252/5 "2010-09-02T12:20:52Z")

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Le 01 septembre à 17:43, Peter H. a écrit :

> data = Array.new  
> data \<\< {“name” =\> “Admiral Ackbar”}  
> data \<\< {“name” =\> “Bail Organa”}

C’mon, where’s the fun in that ? 🙂

> > require “ostruct”  
> > =\> true
> 
> > a = []  
> > =\> []
> 
> > a \<\< OpenStruct.new(:name =\> “Admiral Ackbar”, :age =\> 30)  
> > =\> [#\<OpenStruct name=“Admiral Ackbar”, age=30\>]
> 
> > a \<\< OpenStruct.new(:name =\> “Bail Organa”, :age =\> 65)  
> > =\> [#\<OpenStruct name=“Admiral Ackbar”, age=30\>, #\<OpenStruct name=“Bail  
> > Organa”, age=65\>]
> 
> > a[0].name  
> > =\> “Admiral Ackbar”
> 
> > a[1].age  
> > =\> 65
> 
> > a.find { |e| e.age \> 50 }  
> > =\> #\<OpenStruct name=“Bail Organa”, age=65\>

Fred