So I have a for loop thats creating a hash or array depending on whats being passed in.

I need to create these arrays and Hashes with names based on whats being passed in.

Its much the same as

window['MyNewArray-' + i] = [];

In javascript. Is there any equivalent for Ruby?

So I have a for loop thats creating a hash or array depending on whats being passed in.

I need to create these arrays and Hashes with names based on whats being passed in.

Its much the same as

window['MyNewArray-' + i] = [];

In javascript. Is there any equivalent for Ruby?

• javascript
• ruby
• variables
• dynamic
• naming

Share Improve this question Follow asked Aug 15, 2011 at 11:39 OVERTONEOVERTONE 12.2k2020 gold badges7474 silver badges8787 bronze badges 2

• 2 If you have to create variables with dynamic names your code is most likely broken. Consider putting the elements into an array/dict-like container. – ThiefMaster Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 11:43
• Its because I have nested arrays and would like to bring them up a level. So rather than saying container[0][0] Id like to have a bunch of top level arrays to access. In fact its kind of a necessity. It wouldn't be a mon thing that I would do. – OVERTONE Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 12:31

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4 Answers 4

Sorted by: Reset to default 4

You could do something like:

window = {}
5.times do |i|
  window["my_new_array_#{i}"]=[]
end

That same code does work in Ruby, too, and does the same thing.

Well you can create a Ruby hash using :

h = {}

and then add a key/value pair using the store or the []= operator.

Like this :

h["foo_#{i}"] = []

Documentation

window = Hash[1.upto(5).map { |n| ["name-#{i}", []] }]