From: Corey Jewett <ml@...>
Date: 2007-07-06T14:52:47+09:00
Subject: Re: Regex: What does the ^ do? What is it called?

On Jul 5, 2007, at 10:33 PM, Thomas Wieczorek wrote:

> Hi
>
>> /^abc/ =~ "!abc"
>> returns nil
>> "You can use an anchor to match the beginning of a string"
>>
>
> Just like the definition says ^ is used to mark the beginning of a  
> string:
> /^abc/ =~ "abc!"
> will return 0(the start of your pattern)
>
>
>> /abc$/ =~ "abc!"
>> returns nil
>> "You can use an anchor to match the end of a string"
>
> $ is used to mark the end of a string:
> /abc$/ =~ "!abc"
> will return 0 again.
>
> /^I love Ruby$/ will only match the string "I love Ruby" and not "He
> said: I love Ruby".  /I love Ruby/ or /I love Ruby/$ will match /^I
> love Ruby$/
>

^, $, \A, \Z, \B, etc. are called anchors.

Corey