Sublime Text: Convert Ruby 1.8 to 1.9 style hash syntax

Ruby 1.9 and 2.0 has a new hash syntax. In Ruby 1.8 it was:

hash = { :one => "first value", :two => "second value" }

In Ruby 1.9 and 2.0, this can now be written as:

hash = { one: "first value", two: "second value" }

Saving three characters per key.

If you’re using Sublime Text, it’s really easy to do this conversion automatically.

Here’s how to do it – use it at your own risk, and take a backup first:

1. Go to Find → Find in Files…
2. Enable Regular expressions – make sure the .* button is activated
3. In the Find box: :([a-z_\d]+) =>
4. In the Replace box: \1:
5. Click the Replace button. This will replace matches in all of your files in Sublime Text. It will also go through non-Ruby files so it might be a good idea to set a Where file pattern to *.rb or *.html.erb. As I said, use at your own risk, and take a backup first.

Enjoy.

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