Adds a new key/value pair to an existing Hash. If the key to be added does already exist and the existing value associated with key is not an Array, it will be converted into an Array. Then the new value is appended to that Array.

Source Code

# File active_support/vendor/xml-simple-1.0.11/xmlsimple.rb, line 644
def merge(hash, key, value)
  if value.instance_of?(String)
    value = normalise_space(value) if @options['normalisespace'] == 2

    # do variable substitutions
    unless @_var_values.nil? || @_var_values.empty?
      value.gsub!(/\$\{(\w+)\}/) { |x| get_var($1) }
    end

    # look for variable definitions
    if @options.has_key?('varattr')
      varattr = @options['varattr']
      if hash.has_key?(varattr)
        set_var(hash[varattr], value)
      end
    end
  end

  #patch for converting keys to symbols
  if @options.has_key?('keytosymbol')
    if @options['keytosymbol'] == true
      key = key.to_s.downcase.to_sym
    end
  end

  if hash.has_key?(key)
    if hash[key].instance_of?(Array)
      hash[key] << value
    else
      hash[key] = [ hash[key], value ]
    end
  elsif value.instance_of?(Array) # Handle anonymous arrays.
    hash[key] = [ value ]
  else
    if force_array?(key)
      hash[key] = [ value ]
    else
      hash[key] = value
    end
  end
  hash
end