From: Jason Sweat <jason.sweat@...>
Date: 2005-09-28T20:02:43+09:00
Subject: Re: Splitting a string with escapable separator?

On 9/27/05, Michael Schuerig <michael@schuerig.de> wrote:
>
> I'm trying to come up with an *elegant* way to split a string into an
> array at a separator with the additional feature that the separators
> can be escaped. It should work like this
>
>   "Hello\, World,Hi".split_escapable(',' '\')
>   # => ["Hello, World", "Hi"]
>
> Through a number of permutations with regexps, scan and the rest of the
> family, I was unable to find a solution. I could parse the given string
> myself, going though it character by character, but I'd prefer a less
> pedestrian approach.
>
> Michael

With the new Regex engine in cvs ruby you can use a negative lookback
assertion in your split:
>> s = "Hello\\, World, Hi"
=> "Hello\\, World, Hi"
>> s.split /(?<!\\),/
=> ["Hello\\, World", " Hi"]


$ ruby --v
ruby 1.9.0 (2005-09-08) [i686-linux]


Regards,
Jason
http://blog.casey-sweat.us/