# Re: Hash#getopt

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-hash-getopt/94216>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 25, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-hash-getopt/94216 "2006-04-25T19:57:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![BergerS\_Daniel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@BergerS\_Daniel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/BergerS_Daniel)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 7:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-hash-getopt/94216/1 "2006-04-25T19:57:12Z")

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> some\_method arg, “key” =\> “value”
> 
> or
> 
> some\_method arg, :key=\>:value
> 
> are idiomatic ruby. let’s just support it directly and be  
> done with it:

I’d rather have a class or instance level method that let me define this  
behavior globally for all hashes, or locally for instances. That way I  
can keep the standard aref syntax, e.g. arg[:key] instead of using a  
separate method name. I wouldn’t mind a way to ignore case, either.

h = {‘foo’, 1, ‘BAR’, 2}  
h.symbol\_alias = true # or whatever  
h.ignore\_key\_case = true # or whatever

h[‘foo’] # 1  
h[:foo] # 1  
h[“FOO”] # 1  
h[‘bar’] # 2  
… etc, etc.

That being said, I’ll take a Hash#getopt method over nothing. 🙂

Regards,

Dan

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![BergerS\_Daniel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@BergerS\_Daniel](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/BergerS_Daniel)\
**Post date:** [April 25, 2006, 8:22pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/re-hash-getopt/94216/2 "2006-04-25T20:22:11Z")

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On Wed, 26 Apr 2006, Berger, Daniel wrote:

> h[‘foo’] # 1  
> h[:foo] # 1  
> h[“FOO”] # 1  
> h[‘bar’] # 2  
> … etc, etc.
> 
> That being said, I’ll take a Hash#getopt method over nothing. 🙂

i agreed. the issue though, is that doing that sort of thing globally  
for  
hashes requires a good bit of code to make something like this work

opts.values\_at :key, ‘key’

or

opts\_a = {:key =\> 42}  
opts\_b = {‘key’ =\> 42.0}

opts\_a.update opts\_b

by sticking to access of options only it’s possible to provide an easy  
way to  
do the normal thing in 98% of cases. as the above two examples show  
though, a  
more general approach involves making lots of choices about  
string/symbol  
interaction. i actually do this in my own code but it’s slippery and  
not for  
general consumption.

regards.

-a