From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-09-08T00:19:30+09:00
Subject: Re: How to convert a "normal" searchstring into regexp

2009/9/7 Fabian Streitel <karottenreibe@googlemail.com>:
> this seems to do the trick:
> http://pastie.org/608326
> I haven't tested it much though...

A simple solution:

class String
  def to_glob
    Regexp.new(gsub(%r{(?<!\\)[*?.]}) do |match|
      GLOB_REPLACE.fetch(match, match)
    end)
  end

private
  GLOB_REPLACE = {
    "." => "\\.",
    "*" => ".*",
    "?" => "."
  }
end

irb(main):015:0> "foo*.b?r".to_glob
=> /foo.*\.b.r/

Of course, this is not complete, as other regexp meta characters need
to be dealt with.  And you need 1.8.7 or 1.9.* for the negative
lookbehind to work IIRC.

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
http://blog.rubybestpractices.com/