From: smitty <cleesmith2006@...>
Date: 2008-09-08T11:13:51+09:00
Subject: convert ascii codes in a string to a string of characters

Is there a more efficient way to convert a string such as
"&#97;&#98;&#99;&#100;&#101;&#102;" to "abcdef" ?

Currently I am doing the following:
a="&#97;&#98;&#99;&#100;&#101;&#102;"
a.delete!("&#")
ar = a.split(';')
arn = ar.collect { |s| Integer(s) }
s = arn.pack("U*")
puts "s=#{s.inspect}"

I need to do this for thousands of records that are
loaded into a database, so I'm a bit concerned
about repeatedly executing all of the above code.
Thanks