From: "Peña, Botp" <botp@...>
Date: 2008-08-26T17:03:22+09:00
Subject: Re: regexp match and nil

From: Adam Akhtar [mailto:adamtemporary@gmail.com] 
# def remove_for_such_and_such(a_string)
#    if (%r{(.+)for.*}i =~ a_string)
#       match = a_string.match(%r{(.+)for.*}i)
#       a_string = match[1].strip
#    end
#    a_string
# end
# i want to know if that could be written better. I wrote the if clause
# because sometimes a string may not match the regular expression. If i
# remove the "if" clause it might lead to match returning nil which will
# stop my program. Im wondring is there a way to avoid using 
# if?? if so it could help performance especially if this function was
# used with huge arrays of strings.

try string#sub

0> class String
1>   def remove_for_such_and_such
2>     sub(%r{(.+)for.*}i){$1.strip}
2>   end
1> end
=> nil

0> x="fooforbar"
=> "fooforbar"

0> x.remove_for_such_and_such
=> "foo"

kind regards -botp