From: Phrogz <gavin@...>
Date: 2007-03-27T08:25:04+09:00
Subject: Re: adding anotehr each method to String

On Mar 26, 4:53 pm, "Rick DeNatale" <rick.denat...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 3/25/07, Une B�vue <unbewusst.s...@wortanschahung.com.invalid> wrote:
> > s='toto'
> > s.to_a
> > # => ['toto']
>
> This is because in Ruby a String doesn't act as a collection of
> characters, it acts as a collection of lines.
>
> s = "to\nto"
> s.to_a => ["to\n", "to"]

To be pedantic, it's not really a collection of lines. It's a
collection of stuff-terminated-by-some-arbitrary-character-sequence.
The global variable $/ holds this special string:

>> $/
=> "\n"

>> s = "foo-bar\njim-jam"
=> "foo-bar\njim-jam"

>> s.to_a
=> ["foo-bar\n", "jim-jam"]

>> $/ = '-'
=> "-"
>> s.to_a
=> ["foo-", "bar\njim-", "jam"]

>> $/ = "bar"
=> "bar"
>> s.to_a
=> ["foo-bar", "\njim-jam"]