From: Ezra Zygmuntowicz <ezmobius@...>
Date: 2006-06-01T12:47:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Parsing a string using multiple regexs


On May 31, 2006, at 4:06 PM, web mail wrote:

>
> To whomever can help,
>
> I need to parse a string into parts using multiple regexs, and I'm new
> to Ruby, so I have NO idea how to do it. Basically, I'm trying to  
> parse
> tags that users might add on a webpage.
>
> Example: In my tags input box, user enters the following:
>         "my first tag", second tag, third_tag fourth_tag
>
> The order of precedence is quotes, then commas then spaces, so my
> results should be a ruby array which contains the values:
>
>  my first tag
>  second tag
>  third_tag
>  fourth_tag
>
> which means the array will have 4 elements.
>
> I desperately need help. Anyone ?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jason
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>


   def parse_tags(input)
     tags = []
     # pull out the quoted tags
     input.gsub!(/\"(.*?)\"\s*/ ) { tags << $1; "" }
     # replace all commas with a space
     input.gsub!(/,/, " ")
     # get whatever's left
     tags.concat input.split(/\s/)
     # strip whitespace from the names
     tags.map! { |t| t.strip }
     # delete any blank tag names
     tags = tags.delete_if { |t| t.empty? }
     return tags
   end


-Ezra