From: Han Holl <han.holl@...>
Date: 2005-09-29T19:18:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Splitting a string with escapable separator?

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On 9/28/05, 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(',' '\')
> # =3D> ["Hello, World", "Hi"]
>
>
None of the offerings so far had support for the second argument for split.
The following is probably quite efficent if the chance of an occurrence of
an escaped character is low.
(I haven't benchmarked anything, though). Also, it's not suitable for binar=
y
strings.

class String
def split_escapable(separator, escape_char, *args)
istr =3D dup
impossible =3D "\x01"
replace =3D "#{escape_char}#{separator}"
changed =3D istr.gsub!(replace, impossible)
fields =3D istr.split(separator, *args)
if changed
fields.each do |f|
f.gsub!(impossible, separator)
end
end
fields
end
end
a =3D "Hello\\, World,Hi"
puts a.split_escapable( ',', '\\' )

Cheers,

Han Holl

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