From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2009-01-20T10:44:17+09:00
Subject: Re: Gsub!("\n","\n")

Are you seeing something like:
irb> look = 'here is a " and I\'ll put a \' here, too'
=> "here is a \" and I'll put a ' here, too"
irb> puts look
here is a " and I'll put a ' here, too
=> nil

The rules for what needs to be escaped depend on the kind of quotes  
used.

Are you seeing output that is shown in double quotes to indicate that  
it is a string?

-Rob

On Jan 19, 2009, at 8:16 PM, Simon Tan wrote:

> haha actually, the other way around :)  I have a string(I  
> believe...I'm
> using Hpricot to retreive web pages and it likes to add slashes to
> everything). For example, I want to change "Hello, \nWorld" by  
> changing
> \n into a newline.  So the output should be like:
> Hello
> World
>
>
> I did try your suggestion, but I get "Hello\\nWorld".  Will keep  
> playing
> with the slashes.
>
> Rob Biedenharn wrote:
>> On Jan 19, 2009, at 7:19 PM, Simon Tan wrote:
>>
>>> -- 
>> Are you trying to turn this:
>>
>> Hello,
>> World
>>
>> Into something like:
>>
>> Hello,\nWorld
>>
>> If so, you need to change "\n" (1 character string) into "\\\\n" (3
>> character string, two escaped backslashs and the letter 'n').  The
>> replacement string will undergo two different interpretations: as a
>> string literal "\\\\n" becomes \\n which when interpreted as a
>> replacement for a regexp undergoes another round (so that things like
>> \1 and \2 can reference groups in the regexp) and becomes \n
>>
>> Yes, this is tricky, but it's because there are two levels of  
>> escaping
>> going on and both use the backslash.
>>
>> -Rob
>>
>> Rob Biedenharn    http://agileconsultingllc.com
>> Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com
>
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingllc.com
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com
+1 513-295-4739
Skype:	rob.biedenharn