From: Michael Hollins <mick@...>
Date: 2007-07-20T11:19:59+09:00
Subject: Re: simple question

anitawa wrote:
> hello
> 
> I have a string like this
> 
> string = "hello -a apple -b butterfly -c cat -d dophin"
> 
> i would like to parse the string based on some reg exp so that i can
> store it in a variable like so.
> 
> valuea = "apple"
> valueb = "butterfly"
> valuec = "cat"
> valued = "dophin"
> 
> Could someone help me out.
> 

Are you parsing a command line? If so, you might want to consider 
http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/optparse/rdoc/index.html

cheers,
mick