From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2005-11-15T12:26:34+09:00
Subject: Re: using n.times with gsub

Hi --

On Tue, 15 Nov 2005, Ara.T.Howard wrote:

> On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 davidpthomas@gmail.com wrote:
>
>> GOAL: one-liner substitute of 5 spaces at beginning of a line.
>> 
>> WORKS: gsub(/^/, "     ")
>> FAILS: gsub(/^/, 5.times {putc " "})
>> 
>> -example-
>> WORKS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, "     ")'
>> FAILS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, 5.times{putc " "})'
>> 
>> 
>> I've tried variations of putc, puts, and print.  All fail in different
>> ways.
>> 
>> thoughts? -- dave
>
> works:
>
>  harp:~ > cat a
>  a
>  b
>  c
>  harp:~ > ruby -pe ' 5.times{ gsub /^/, 32.chr } ' < a
>       a
>       b
>       c
>
> simpler:
>
>  harp:~ > ruby -pe ' sub /^/, 32.chr * 5' < a
>       a
>       b
>       c

Tiny further simplification: s/<// :-)


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net