From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2008-07-16T17:15:21+09:00
Subject: Re: RegEx stuff

From: Justin To [mailto:tekmc@hotmail.com] 
# => ["a\\^b\\^\\^c&def"]
# How come the & does not get subbed with '\\&' ??
# I'm basically trying to substitute any special character with
# '\\#{special_character}'

i'm a block fan, so,

irb(main):048:0> b.each do |c|
irb(main):049:1*   a=a.to_s.gsub(c){"\\#{c}"}.to_a
irb(main):050:1> end
=> ["^", "&"]

irb(main):052:0> a
=> ["a\\^b\\^\\^c\\&def"]

using block form of gsub wont give you problems on escaping the escape..

kind regards -botp