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Oliver
Oliver

Posted on • Updated on • Originally published at codeandclay.com

Hash default values

You can use a pair of empty braces to initialise a hash. But, if you try to access a non-existant key, Ruby returns nil by default.

my_hash = {}
=> {}
my_hash[:foo]
=> nil
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Sometimes it might be useful to set a default value. This could be anything: an empty string, a null object, an error…

Here, I've set a string as default.

my_hash = {}
=> {}
my_hash.default = "Not set"
=> "Not set"
my_hash[:foo]
=> "Not set"
my_hash[:bar]
=> "Not set"
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Now, instead of getting nil for a non-existant entry, I get the default value.

The hash remains empty because I have not created any entries.

my_hash
=> {}
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Hash.new accepts a proc which you can use to set default values.

my_hash = Hash.new { |_hash, key| "Value for #{key} not set!" }
=> {}
my_hash[:foo]
=> "Value for foo not set!"
my_hash[:bar]
=> "Value for bar not set!"
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You can also tell the proc to create a new entry if one isn't found.

my_hash = Hash.new { |hash, key| hash[key] = "Not set" }
=> {}
my_hash[:foo]
=> "Not set"
my_hash[:bar]
=> "Not set"
my_hash
=> {:foo=>"Not set", :bar=>"Not set"}
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See the ruby docs for more info.

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