From: Trans <transfire@...>
Date: 2005-04-21T01:04:35+09:00
Subject: Linear complete variation of MatchData#to_a, possible?

Hi--

I have a it bit of a puzzle for Regexp engine hackers out there. The
#to_a method on MatchData gives a simple list of matching portions of
the matched text.

  md = /(1)(2(3))(4)/.match "012345"
  md.to_a
  ["1234", "1", "23", "3", "4"]

But I would like a method the produces a linearly segmented list of the
text itself, like this:

  ["0", "1", "2", [ "3" ], "4", "5" ]

Notice the array depth corresponds to the subexpression depth.

My first stab was:

  def matchlist
    # good idea to cache?
    @matchset ||= pre_match + self[1..-1] + post_match
  end

But obviously that does not work when there are subexpressions.

Is such a method even possible?

Thanks,
T.