Whats are some important differences between an OpenStruct and a Hash?

Question

They both seem to accomplish the same thing. What use cases would require one over the other?

Currently, I'm working on some presenter classes. My first thought was to use OpenStruct, but I can't identify a meaningful difference between using a Hash and an OpenStruct.

there's a big performance hit when using OpenStructs - see my answer below — Tilo
– Tilo, Commented Apr 19, 2013 at 0:20

the Tin Man · Accepted Answer · 2013-04-19 00:38:58Z

4

Object syntax v. hash syntax.

If a method requires an object with certain accessors, then a Hash would not work.

edited Apr 19, 2013 at 0:38

the Tin Man

161k44 gold badges222 silver badges308 bronze badges

answered Apr 19, 2013 at 0:14

7stud

48.8k14 gold badges107 silver badges136 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:18:55Z

1

OpenStructs are sloooooooooow and memory intensive , and don't scale well for large data sets. Creating 1 million OpenStructs is ~100x slower than creating 1 million Hashes.

This has been discussed in detail here:

When should I use Struct vs. OpenStruct?

edited May 23, 2017 at 12:18

CommunityBot

11 silver badge

answered Apr 19, 2013 at 0:15

Tilo

33.8k5 gold badges83 silver badges107 bronze badges

3 Comments

Trip Over a year ago

Hmm, so you recommend sticking to Hashes then? Why do people use Structs/OpenStructs then?

Tilo Over a year ago

Yes, creating 1 million Openstructs is about 100x slower than creating 1 million Hashes. Please check out the detailed comparison in that question I mentioned.

Trip Over a year ago

Wow thanks so much Tilo. I guess OpenStructs is just a strange niche case that is rarely used for very rare circumstances. Thanks!

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Whats are some important differences between an OpenStruct and a Hash?

2 Answers 2

Comments

3 Comments

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

Comments

3 Comments

Linked

Related