From: Phil Tomson <rubyfan@...>
Date: 2007-12-31T15:36:53+09:00
Subject: Re: How can I get this backslash-eliminating behavior when reading a file?

On 12/30/07, Phil Tomson <rubyfan@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm trying to write a parser for a file format that allows backslashes
> '\' at the end of lines.  The format I'm trying to parse treats
> backslashes at the end of lines just like the Ruby parser would treat
> them if they occured in a ruby source file.
>
> The double quotes string constructor does what I want it to in this case:
>
> irb(main):006:0> str = "line1 \
> irb(main):007:0" still more line1 \
> irb(main):008:0" even more line1"
> => "line1 still more line1 even more line1"  <- this is exactly what I want
>
>
> However, if I read a string in from a file, I don't get what I want:
> $ cat testfile
> line 1 \
> still on line 1\
> even more line 1
>
> irb(main):001:0> str = File.read("testfile")
> => "line 1 \\\nstill on line 1\\\neven more line 1\n"
>
> I'd prefer not to even know about the backslashes or '\n's, so I'd
> rather have the behavior that the double quotes string constructor
> gives me:
>   => "line1 still more line1 even more line1"
>
> Is there any way to get this behavior when reading a file into a string?
>
> Phil
>

ah, of course, I could just to this:
str = File.read("testfile").gsub(/\\\n/,'')

That does what I asked for... now I realize that I probably don't want
to do this since the line numbering will be all off when reporting
errors...

Phil