From: William James <w_a_x_man@...>
Date: 2007-01-20T01:05:06+09:00
Subject: Re: Copying strings

WoodHacker wrote:
> I can't believe this hasn't been answered a thousand times, but I can't
> seem to find the answer in the group archive.
>
> I am parsing a string into @text (i.e.  abc.def)     I want to save the
> part before the dot into @firstpart .   For example:
>
>                @text << "a"
>                @text << "b"
>                @text << "c"   next char is "." so @firstpart = @text
> then         @text << "."
>                @text << "d", etc
>
> The problem is, this doesn't work.    @firstpart apparently is a
> pointer to @text and continues to receive the characters.    Freezing
> @firstpart doesn't work because then @text <<  produces a freeze error.
>   There doesn't appear to be a "copy" method for string, so how do I do
> this?
>
> Sometimes the obvious eludes us....
>
> Bill

Your code sample doesn't run at all.  Here's one that does.

text = ""
text << "a"
text << "b"
text << "c"
first_part = text.dup
text << "."
text << "d"

p first_part