hash symbol key incorrectly converted to string

[edvardm]

This is a rare case I assume, but in a certain app we have all hash keys as symbols. However, one particular key may contain spaces, so we have to represent that key as string, which is then turned into symbol. An example:

{ ... :"custom column" => 42 }

Rubocop transforms this to

{ ... "custom column": 42 }

which breaks the code. I wonder would be the proper solution: could it be just assumed that if form :"" is used, it's explicitly made so and should be preserved?

[bbatsov]

I'm having trouble reproducing this on the current master. Can you check if the problem is present there? If so - add more detailed steps on how to reproduce it.

[edvardm]

Sure. And thanks for checking this issue, it's the only thing that's wrong with auto-correct in our current projects. Code follows:

$ cat test.rb
h = { :"foo" => 1 }
puts h
$ rubocop -a test.rb
Inspecting 1 file
C
Offenses:
test.rb:1:7: C: [Corrected] Use the new Ruby 1.9 hash syntax.
h = { :"foo" => 1 }
      ^^^^^^^^^
1 file inspected, 1 offense detected, 1 offense corrected
$ cat test.rb
h = { "foo": 1 }
puts h
$ cat .rubocop.yml
Lint/AssignmentInCondition:
  AllowSafeAssignment: true
Style/EmptyElse:
  Enabled: false
Style/StringLiterals:
  Enabled: false
Style/TrivialAccessors:
  AllowPredicates: true
Style/GlobalVars:
  AllowedVariables: [$logger]
Style/GuardClause:
  Enabled: false
Style/Documentation:
  Enabled: false
Style/CaseEquality:
  Enabled: true
Metrics/LineLength:
  Enabled: true
  AllowURI: true
  Max: 100
Metrics/MethodLength:
  Max: 16
Metrics/AbcSize:
  Max: 45
Metrics/CyclomaticComplexity:
  Max: 12
Style/SignalException:
  Enabled: false
AllCops:
  Include:
    - '**/config.ru'
  Exclude:
    - 'lib/templates/**/*'
    - 'db/**/*'
    - 'script/**/*'
    - 'bin/**/*'
    - 'config/**/*'

[bbatsov]

With the extra info I located and eradicated the bug. :-)

[edvardm]

Ah, dem regexes :) Always write-only they are. Thank you!

[bbatsov]

Actually the problem wasn't in the regexp, but in the fact that the parser normalizes string names and strips their quotes when they're not needed.