From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2008-03-19T18:09:26+09:00
Subject: Re: Split string at spaces, but not when inside quotation marks?

From: Peter Bunyan [mailto:peter.bunyan@gmail.com] 
# I want to be able to split a string at the space, unless the 
# spaces are
# inside question marks. I've got a solution, but it makes baby 

       ^^^^^^^^^^^ i think you meant quotation marks, no?

# Jesus cry:
# http://pastebin.com/m6db29d1e

that is one way and it does not look bad.
there are many ways, of course.
 
# Any better ideas? 

im not sure if this is better, but

irb(main):071:0> x
=> "this \"this too \"  not this \"these too  \" not these  "

irb(main):072:0> x.split(/\s*?(".*?")\s*?/).map{|x| x=~/^".*"$/ ? x : x.split}.flatten
=> ["this", "\"this too \"", "not", "this", "\"these too  \"", "not", "these"]


# Is there already a built-in method to do 
# this (or even one in ActiveSupport)?

i do not know of ActiveSupport in ruby. Are you talking about rails?

kind regards -botp