From: Sam Kong <sam.s.kong@...>
Date: 2005-06-05T04:10:24+09:00
Subject: Question about string's in-place modification

Hello!

I wonder how destructive methods work in the behind.

For example,

s = '12345'
s2 = s
s.sub!('3', 'three')
puts s #->'12three45'
puts s2 #->'12three45'

Destructive methods are in-place.
Does that mean the object doesn't change its location in memory?
Probably not.
I don't think it's possible as the object might need more space and
need to move to a bigger empty space for the changed data.
If it moves, the references pointing to it should be updated as well.

How exactly does that work?

Thanks in advance.
Sam