From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2005-07-28T21:30:54+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie: unexpected result with string.split( regexpr )

On 7/28/05, francisrammeloo@hotmail.com <francisrammeloo@hotmail.com> wrote:
> My goal is to obtain the filename out of a full pathname.
> 
> This is the code:
>   fullname = "./Dir/file.txt"
>     # Searches greedyly until the last slash
>   array = fullname.split(/.*\//)
> 
> The results are:
>   puts array.length      ==> 2
>   puts array[0]          ==> (newline symbol or something??)
>   puts array[1]          ==> file.txt
> 
> My questions are:
>   Why has the array a length of 2?
>   What is in array[0]?

Because you're splitting, not matching.

    ./Dir/file.txt
    ^^^^^^ <-- What's here is your separator.

There's nothing *before* your separator, so array[0] is an empty
string; array[1] is the filename. There are two ways that are
better:

    fullname = "./Dir/file.txt"
      # Alternate regex form to avoid escaping.
    array = fullname.split(%r{/}, -1)
    puts array.length, array[-1]

        # Best way
    puts File.basename(fullname)

-austin
-- 
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca