Object initialization problem

Ruby
1

Hi
Say I have a Hash, and an instance called wordcount, that maps strings
to a number count, that counts the occurance of the word.

I do

count = Hash.new
count[word]++ if count[word]
count[word]=1 unless count[word]

everytime! Is there a simple way to do it?

Thanks :slight_smile:
Vimal

2

Hi –

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006, Vimal wrote:

Hi
Say I have a Hash, and an instance called wordcount, that maps strings
to a number count, that counts the occurance of the word.

I do

count = Hash.new
count[word]++ if count[word]

Not in Ruby you don’t :slight_smile:

count[word]=1 unless count[word]

everytime! Is there a simple way to do it?

You could do:

count = Hash.new(0) # default to 0
count[word] += 1 # each time through loop

David

3

class Hash
def increment_word_count(key)
self[key] ||= 1
self[key] += 1
end
end

count = Hash.new
count.increment_word_count(word)

Of course, if you can think of a better method name, but this will help
with
DRYness.

Jason

4

Doh! I’m getting caught up in the cooler features of Ruby and forgetting
the
simple stuff. David’s got it right.

Jason

5

Hi –

On Mon, 25 Sep 2006, Jason R. wrote:

Of course, if you can think of a better method name, but this will help with
DRYness.

There’s also DRR (Don’t Repeat Ruby :slight_smile: Hashes are already good at
this stuff (see my previous response).

David