Getting a n-th key-value pair from a hash

ruby-talk
1

Hi!

suppose I have this hash:

data = { "a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3 }

I'd like to get a random pair from the hash.

so

data.get_pair(data.rand)

should return ["b", 2] for example.

How could this be done? I cannot find any method in the documentation.

Thank You!

david

···

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2

D. Krmpotic wrote:

Hi!

suppose I have this hash:

data = { "a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3 }

I'd like to get a random pair from the hash.

so

data.get_pair(data.rand)

should return ["b", 2] for example.

How could this be done? I cannot find any method in the documentation.

class Hash
   def get_rand_pair
     key = self.keys[rand(self.length)]
     [key, self[key]]
   end
end

···

--
Alex

3

class Hash

  def random_pair
       to_a[rand(size)]
  end
end

Note that what you asked for here is not getting the n-th pair as your
title suggests. That's problematical with a hash since hashes have no
defined ordering.

But to get a random key-value pair this should work.

···

On 3/23/07, D. Krmpotic <david.krmpotic@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi!

suppose I have this hash:

data = { "a" => 1, "b" => 2, "c" => 3 }

I'd like to get a random pair from the hash.

so

data.get_pair(data.rand)

should return ["b", 2] for example.

How could this be done? I cannot find any method in the documentation.

Thank You!

david

--
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/

4

Great! Thank you both.. didn't think of those simple solutions.

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