From: Tachikoma <ikari.shinji.eva@...>
Date: 2008-07-16T15:55:20+09:00
Subject: Re: RegEx stuff

On Jul 16, 1:08 pm, Justin To <te...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> a = [["a^b^^"], ["c&def"]]
> b= []
>
> a.to_s.each_byte { |byte| (b.push(byte.chr) if !b.include?(byte.chr)) if
> byte.chr.match(/\W+/) }
>
> b.each do |c|
>   a=a.to_s.gsub(c, "\\#{c}").to_a
>   end
>
> p a
>
> => ["a\\^b\\^\\^c&def"]
>
> How come the & does not get subbed with '\\&' ??
>
> I'm basically trying to substitute any special character with
> '\\#{special_character}'
>
> THANKS!
> --
> Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/.

try
a=a.to_s.gsub(c, "\\\\#{c}").to_a

"\\" will present as '\'
'\&' will present as '&'