From: dblack@...
Date: 2006-10-18T09:11:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Splitting a sentence with delimiter preserved

Hi --

On Wed, 18 Oct 2006, Gavin Kistner wrote:

> From: Ajithkumar Warrier [mailto:a.varier@gmail.com]
>> I am a newbie and the answer to this might be too simple.
>> How do I improve the example below and reduce the number of passes
>> over the string?
>>
>>  string =  "This is an example string.  The purpose is to save the
>> delimiter during split. Does this work.  Great!!!."
>>
>> re = /(\.\s+)(\D)/
>> string.gsub!(re,'\1'+'#'+'\2')
>> b = string.split('#')
>> puts b
>
> p string.scan( /\w[^.!?]+\S+/ )
>
> #=> ["This is an example string.", "The purpose is to save the delimiter
> during split.", "Does this work.", "Great!!!."]

Also, in 1.9, with oniguruma, you can do:

   string.split(/(?<=\.)\s+/)

(negative lookbehind).


David

-- 
                   David A. Black | dblack@wobblini.net
Author of "Ruby for Rails"   [1] | Ruby/Rails training & consultancy [3]
DABlog (DAB's Weblog)        [2] | Co-director, Ruby Central, Inc.   [4]
[1] http://www.manning.com/black | [3] http://www.rubypowerandlight.com
[2] http://dablog.rubypal.com    | [4] http://www.rubycentral.org