From: Rick DeNatale <rick.denatale@...>
Date: 2008-01-17T07:47:57+09:00
Subject: Re: regular expression

On 1/16/08, Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner <ed.odanow@wonado.de> wrote:
> Rick Denatale wrote:
> > Something like this?
> > irb(main):001:0> "frabelious" =~ /a.*?e.*?i.*?o.*?u/
> > => 2
>
> This doesn't work as expected...
>
> irb(main):001:0> "xaxxixxexxixxuxxoxxuxx".match(/a.*?e.*?i.*?o.*?u/)[0]
> => "axxixxexxixxuxxoxxu"
>
> ..., because it allows all wovels in any order in the word, if there is
> one possible grouping with the wanted ordering - The subpattern "a.*?e"
> for example allows any number of "a"s, "i"s, "o"s, and "u"s between the
> "a" and the "e".

Ahh, but "xaxxixxexxixxuxxoxxuxx" DOES contain the vowels in
alphabetical order, the original problem statement said nothing about
disallowing additional vowels.

I really posted my "solution" to drive out what he really wanted.
Kind of a test-driven approach.




-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/