From: William Djaja Tjokroaminata <billtj@...>
Date: 2001-10-20T02:26:10+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:22769] How to Convert String to Regex to Perform Exact Match

Hi,

Is there any easy way to convert a string str to a regexp reg so that the
effect of

    reg = str.to_regexp
    another_str =~ reg

is exactly the same as

    another_str == str

I could not find a function that performs the "to_regexp" utility.

Although it is true that for a single argument I can just check the type
such as

    def match (str)
        .....
        if str.type == String
            if another_str == str
                .....
        elsif str.type == Regexp
            if another_str =~ str
                .....
    end

this will become clumsy (and probably slow) if I have multiple arguments
and I have a loop inside the function.  So basically before I execute the
loop in the function, I want to convert each argument, if it is of type
String, to a Regexp that performs an exact match.  Therefore inside the
loop I don't have to check whether any argument is String or Regexp; I
just perform exact matching based on Regexp.  Thanks.

Regards,

Bill