From: Austin Ziegler <halostatue@...>
Date: 2005-09-29T23:08:49+09:00
Subject: Re: Backslashes

On 9/29/05, Han Holl <han.holl@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Why does
> '\\'.gsub('\\','\\\\').size
> produce 1 ?
>
> Is this a bug, or should it be specially documented ?

It's not a bug, and it's relatively well known. I recommend:

  '\\'.gsub(/\\/) { "\\\\" }.size

The *trick* is that strings consider \ special, so to use special
regexp values (like \1), you need \\1. So to get \\, you actually need
\\\\\\\\ (yes, eight of them). The first round of interpolation
(string) will result in \\\\; the second round of interpolation
(regexp substitution values) will result in \\.

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