[#GROOVY-1288] When creating a map, the key cannot reference to a variable? - jira.codehaus.org

groovy

When creating a map, the key cannot reference to a variable?

Created: 04/Apr/06 09:26 AM Updated: 09/Apr/06 05:18 AM Resolved: 09/Apr/06 05:18 AM

Component/s:

None

Affects Version/s:

1.0-JSR-4

Fix Version/s:

1.0-JSR-6

Time Tracking:

Not Specified

Description

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Let's say I evaluate the following:
key = "actualKey"
map = [key:"value"]
print map

The result will be: {key=value}. What I would like to get is {actualKey=value}

Is this a bug or an intended feature? Basically the key of a map is always interpreted as a string - even if it matches an actual string variable in the scope.

I can use the following workaround, but I feel it's a bit ugly. Are there any better alternatives available?
key = "actualKey"
map = ["$key":"value"]
print map

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Guillaume Laforge added a comment - 04/Apr/06 09:37 AM

By default, keys are strings, so when writing map = [key:"value"], it's equivalent to map = ["key":"value"]
If you actually want to use the value of a variable as a key, you have to put the key between parentheses: map = [(key):"value"]

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Ryan Misek added a comment - 05/Apr/06 02:39 PM

The solution we used for this (not very Groovyish but ...) was:

def key = "acutalKey"
map.put(key,"value")

Until reading the first comment, I never thought about forcing the evaluation of the key variable by enclosing it in parens.