Handling hashes

gistfile1.txt

 > text = 'some text'
=> "some text" 
 > hash_options = {rant_id:1,date:11/04/2014,top:text,number:12}
=> {:rant_id=>1, :date=>0, :top=>"some text", :number=>12}
 
NOTE that 'date' gets set to zero, because it's being interpreted as, "11 divided by 04 divided by 2014"
 
Also this:

 > hash_options = rant_id:1,date:11/04/2014,top:text,number:12
SyntaxError: (irb):5: syntax error, unexpected tLABEL
hash_options = rant_id:1,date:11/04/2014,top:text,number:12
                       ^

As opposed to this:

 > hash_options = {rant_id:1,date:11/04/2014,top:text,number:12}
=> {:rant_id=>1, :date=>0, :top=>"some text", :number=>12}