From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2007-05-08T21:35:04+09:00
Subject: Re: general purpose chomp?

On 08.05.2007 14:11, Michal Suchanek wrote:
> I wonder why we do not have one. Or maybe I just overlooked something?
> 
> class String
>  def lstripc c = ' \r\t\n'
>    c = c.chr if c.kind_of? Integer
>    idx = 0
>    while c.include? self[idx]
>      idx += 1
>    end
>    self[idx..-1]
>  end
> end

irb(main):016:0> s = "\r\n\tfoo"
=> "\r\n\tfoo"
irb(main):017:0> s.lstrip!
=> "foo"
irb(main):018:0> s
=> "foo"

If you want more control, the "general purpose" methods would be sub, 
sub!, gsub and gsub!:

irb(main):001:0> s = "\r\n\tfoo"
=> "\r\n\tfoo"
irb(main):002:0> s.sub! %r{\A[\r\n\s]+}, ''
=> "foo"
irb(main):003:0> s
=> "foo"

irb(main):009:0> s = "\r\n\tfoo"
=> "\r\n\tfoo"
irb(main):010:0> s.sub! %r{\A\s+}, ''
=> "foo"
irb(main):011:0> s
=> "foo"

Regards

	robert