From: Louis J Scoras <louis.j.scoras@...>
Date: 2006-10-20T02:32:03+09:00
Subject: Re: newbie: Strings and RegExp

You should also be able to do this with split.  Then you can use
strings as well as regexes:

    class String
      def match_between(head, tail)
        strings = []
        s = split(head, 2)[1]
        while (s)
          match, rest = s.split(tail,2)
          return strings unless rest
          strings << match
          s = rest.split(head, 2)[1]
        end
        strings
      end
    end

So with the same string as before,

    str = "I just wanted to say hello to you before I say goodbye for
the final time."
    str << " Oh, hello and goodbye again."

you get:

    p str.match_between(/hello/,/goodbye/)
    # => [" to you before I say ", " and "]

and also

    p str.match_between('a','e')
    # => ["nt", "y h", "y goodby", "l tim", "nd goodby"]

I'm sure you could also tweek it to operate in a manner which doesn't
consume the rest of the string, i.e.: the 'g' flag.


-- 
Lou.