From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2005-08-14T13:03:27+09:00
Subject: Re: YANQ (yet another newbie question): "string"[0.."e"]

basi wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Is there a way to say in Ruby:
> 
> "astring"[0../r/]     #"ast"
> "astring"[/ast/..-1]  #"ring"
> 
> In other words, indexing using a "pattern". 

You just have to tinker with the pattern a bit:

"astring"[/.*?(?=r)/]   # ==> "ast"
"astring"[/ast(.*)/, 1] # ==> "ring"

The (?=r) is a lookahead operator that matches but does not consume
characters. The numerical argument n=1 in the second example indicates
that #[] should return the value of the n-th capture

-- 
      vjoel : Joel VanderWerf : path berkeley edu : 510 665 3407