Ruby thinks element of hash is Integer

Question

I have a function in Ruby:

def find_item(keyword)
    potential = []
    $items.each do |item|
        puts item                                 # <-- for debugging purposes
        if item["name"].downcase== keyword
            potential << item["name"].downcase
        elsif item["keywords"].index(keyword) != nil
            potential << item["name"].downcase
        end
    end
    return potential
end

(The global variable $items is a Hash object that maps a few strings to some values that determine the properties of the item.)

When I puts the current item it is iterating over (the line with the comment does just that), it gives me:

{"name"=>"Thing1", "keywords"=>["thing", "green"], ...}

but when I try item["name"] on the next line (which should definitely return Thing1), it gives me:

C:/somepath/someprogram.rb:125:in '[]': can't convert String into Integer (TypeError)

Dominik Honnef · Accepted Answer · 2011-11-27 18:06:43Z

2

if $items is a Hash, then $items.each do |item| will yield [key, value] pairs (Arrays) to the block. If you only want the values, use each_value.

answered Nov 27, 2011 at 18:06

Dominik Honnef

18.6k7 gold badges43 silver badges43 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

Jörg W Mittag Over a year ago

And if you need both key and value, use destructuring bind.

Dominik Honnef Over a year ago

In case "destructuring bind" is unknown to you (I myself never heard it in the Ruby community), he means doing something like $items.each do |key, value|

itdoesntwork Over a year ago

Ahh ok that seems to be the problem :) Thanks!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Ruby thinks element of hash is Integer

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

3 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Related