From: Brian Candler <B.Candler@...>
Date: 2007-05-02T20:58:21+09:00
Subject: Re: testing and assigning with regexp's

On Wed, May 02, 2007 at 08:23:13PM +0900, Tim Hunter wrote:
> Mike Steiner wrote:
> >I'm new to Ruby, and in a little program I'm writing, I have code like 
> >this:
> >
> >str = ''
> >if /something/.match(str)
> >   str = /something/.match(str)[1]
> >end
> >
> >Is there a more elegant way to do this?
> >
> >Mike Steiner
> >
> str = ''
> m = /something/.match(str)
> str = m[1] if m

A useful pattern is:
    str = $1 if /(something)/ =~ str

or without the capture:
    str = $& if /something/ =~ str