Logan Capaldo [mailto:logancapaldo@gmail.com] :
# f[w] = f[w].to_i + 1
i felt like being the dumbest guy on earth <banging head>.
this one works for both arrays and hashes.
thank you for the uber cool tip, ruby hacker logan (though i have to squinch my eyes a bit for that quick hack 
thanks to all too and kind regards -botp