From: yermej <yermej@...>
Date: 2008-01-22T05:49:58+09:00
Subject: Re: Is there an easier way to get a match before a position in a 	string?

On Jan 21, 1:12 pm, "Michael W. Ryder" <_mwry...@worldnet.att.net>
wrote:
> I am trying to find an easier way to split a string into printable
> lines.  I could use the method of checking for a space using a loop and
> going back from the desired length or I could use the following:
>
> def strbrk(str, len)
>    if str.length <= len
>      return str.length
>    end
>    tmp = str[0...len].reverse
>    x = tmp =~ / /
>    if x == nil
>      return -1
>      else
>        return len - x
>    end
> end
>
> I could not find any way to get a regexp to search from the end of the
> string which would have eliminated the need to reverse the string.

This should work:

/ [^ ]*$/

It looks for one space, followed by 0 or more occurrences of anything
besides a space, followed by the end of the string.