How can I merge two hashes? - ruby

Question

I made two hashes hash1 and hash2 with following keys and values.
Input:
hash1 = {1=>"One", 2=>"Two", 3=>"Three"}
hash2 = {4=>"First", 5=>"Second", 6=>"Third"}
Result:
And I am expecting hash3 to give me a result like
hash3 #=> {1 => "One", 2 => "Two", 3 => "Three", 4 => "First", 5 => "Second", 6 => "Third"}
Can anyone tell me how I can merge these two hashes? Assume that hash3 should contain all keys and all values.

Answer 1

Solution with minimal coding
hash3 = hash1.merge(hash2)

Answer 2

It seems you are looking for Hash#merge
hash1 = {1=>"One", 2=>"Two", 3=>"Three"}
hash2 = {4=>"First", 5=>"Second", 6=>"Third"}
hash3 = hash1.merge hash2
#=> {1 => "One", 2 => "Two", 3 => "Three", 4 => "First", 5 => "Second", 6 => "Third"}
Considering the fact that you access your hash through an increasing sequence of integers, you should think about using an Array instead of a Hash.
result = hash1.values + hash2.values
# => ["One", "Two", "Three", "First", "Second", "Third"]
This way you can still access your values similarly (e.g. result[2] #=> "Three"), but you have a more concise data structure.

Answer 3

If you want 1 to return both "first" and "one", you'll need to store them in an array which will then be the value of which 1 maps to.
results = {}
hash1.each do |key, value|
if results[key].nil?
results[key] = [value]
else
results[key] << value
hash2.each do |key, value|
if results[key].nil?
results[key] = [value]
else
results[key] << value
results[1]
=> ["one", "first"]
Update
You obviously don't want a hash. You want an array with the values only.
results = hash1.values + hash2.values
=> ["one", "two", "three", "first", "second", "third"]
You can access this array just like a hash. Keep in mind that arrays are zero-indexed, so:
results[0]
=> "one"
results[2]
=> "three"
results[5]
=> "third"
Update 2
And now you want a hash after all, because you have unique keys. So:
hash3 = hash1.merge(hash2)

Answer 4

Since you're learning a new language and are still learning how things work. I'd suggest that with whatever you're working with you take a look at the developer docs.
http://ruby-doc.org/
From there you can search for whatever you're looking for and find other interesting things you can do with the Objects ruby provides for you.
To answer your question specifically you'll need merge method for hashes.
{1: 'One', 2: 'Two', 3: 'Three'}.merge(4: 'Four', 5: 'Five', 6: 'Six)
Will yield {1: 'One', 2: 'Two', 3: 'Three', 4: 'Four', 5: 'Five', 6: 'Six'}