From: Robert Klemme <bob.news@...>
Date: 2004-08-11T16:11:14+09:00
Subject: Re: string.each_char


"Martin DeMello" <martindemello@yahoo.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
news:72aSc.70461$gE.59700@pd7tw3no...
> Alexander Kellett <ruby-lists@lypanov.net> wrote:
> > On Wed, Aug 11, 2004 at 03:21:15AM +0900, Martin DeMello wrote:
> > > I really think String#each_char ought to be added to the core - it's
one
> > > of the most basic String operations, and in practice a lot more
useful a
> > > default case than each_byte. Sure, I can simulate it in a lot of
> > > different ways, but I really do think it ought to be there by
default.
> >
> > what are you attempting to archieve with it?
> > "string".each_byte { |byte| puts byte.chr if byte == ?s }
>
> Iterating over a string letter by letter, without having to do
>
> string.split(//).each {}

That iterates over an array of Strings(!).  If you want to iterate over
characters, you can use the algorithm Gavin showed.

string.each_byte do |char|
  # either work with char which is a Fixnum or
  # convert it to a string (which is costly):
  str = char.chr
end

> I often find myself using a string as a compact data structure,
> essentially a C style array of chars, and need to iterate over the
> letters as an analogue to array#each{}. It feels clumsy to add an extra
> layer of conversion.

You then should treat charaters directly as Fixnum.  This is much more
efficient that converting each chaar to a one char string with #chr.

Kind regards

    robert