From: Robert Dober <robert.dober@...>
Date: 2009-01-12T23:33:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Does ruby support global expression?

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 2:59 PM, Jarod Zhu <zhujie2003info@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi, all
>
>     In my project, there are some rules using global expression( '*'
> as one or more characters ) to match some functions' output.
>     Such as:
>     rule1：  the * apple   (will match the output "the red apple")
>     rule2：  the * + * game    (will match the output "the wonderful +
> successful game")
>
>     I want to use ruby to realize the match check, but I only know
> ruby supports regular expression.
> So I have to change rules to the form of regular expressions( "*" => ".
> +" and add '\' to other regular expession keywords like '+', '.' etc.)
>
>     Is there any way to use global expression directly in ruby?
No, better make it ourselves

class String
  def escape
    return "" if empty?
    Regexp::escape self
  end
  def glob? a_string
    Regexp::new(
      scan( /(.*?)\*([^*]*)/ ).
        inject("") { | r , ( prefix, suffix ) | r << prefix.escape <<
'\w+' << suffix.escape }
    ).match( a_string )
  end
end

p "ab *c*d*".glob?( "ab andcordequally" )
p "a*b".glob?( "ab" )
p "etc.etc."


HTH
R.