From: Tom Werner <tom@...>
Date: 2006-07-13T04:20:20+09:00
Subject: Re: Help with a regexp

Daniel Schierbeck wrote:
> studlee2@gmail.com wrote:
>> Daniel,
>>     When you grab the data it will be in a string format, so you need
>> to convert it to a number (most likely integer).  Then you can compare
>> it with the size of the second value you grabbed.  I would write it
>> like this (modify as needed):
>>
>> print "enter data"
>> a = gets
>> valid  = /^(\d*):(\w*)/
>>
>> check = valid.match(a)
>>
>> if(check[1].to_i == check[2].size)
>>
>>    <Your code here>
>>
>> end
>
> Thank you for your reply.
>
> My problem is that I have a string like this: "3:foo6:monkey5:sheep", 
> which I need to separate into ["foo", "monkey", "sheep"]. The values 
> can contain numeric values, so splitting at \d won't work. This is 
> what makes it difficult:
>
>   "3:ab23:cat5:sheep" => ["ab2", "cat", "sheep"]
>
> I need to grab the number, then read that many characters, then read 
> the next number, etc.
>
>
> Cheers,
> Daniel
>
>

require 'strscan'

array = []
ss = StringScanner.new('3:ab23:cat5:sheep')

while !ss.eos?
  len = ss.scan(/\d+:/).chop.to_i
  array << ss.peek(len)
  ss.pos += len
end

p array

=> ["ab2", "cat", "sheep"]

Tom

-- 
Tom Werner
Helmets to Hardhats
Software Developer
tom@helmetstohardhats.org
www.helmetstohardhats.org