From: Rob Biedenharn <Rob@...>
Date: 2009-10-21T00:43:24+09:00
Subject: Re: Complex GSUB query


On Oct 20, 2009, at 11:37 AM, David A. Black wrote:

> Hi --
>
> On Wed, 21 Oct 2009, Ne Scripter wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I am struggling with something and I have yet been able to find  
>> anything
>> that may help me.
>>
>> I have a string like follows:
>>
>> string = "\"bloggs, Joe (JBloggs, INFO)\" joebloggs, \"bloggs, Bill
>> (BBloggs, INFO)\" billbloggs"
>>
>> I want to break this string up into two entries using a _  
>> seperator, one
>> for Joe and the other for Bill. I could do this with a simple
>>
>> string.gsub(",", "_")
>>
>> However the problem with doing this is that there are commas  
>> elsewhere
>> in the string. So what I need to say is, if the comma is outside of  
>> ""
>> (quotes) replace it with the _
>>
>> Could anyone possibly help me with this?
>
> It looks like the pattern /, "/ occurs at the end of one record into
> the beginning of the next one, and nowhere else. Assuming that's
> correct, it suggests something like:
>
>  string.gsub(/,(?=\s+")/, '_')
>
> i.e., for any comma which is followed by some whitespace and a double
> quote character, replace the comma with an underscore.
>
>
> David
>
> -- 
> The          Ruby training with D. Black, G. Brown, J.McAnally
> Compleat     Jan 22-23, 2010, Tampa, FL
> Rubyist      http://www.thecompleatrubyist.com
>
> David A. Black/Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypal.com)

Or perhaps scan is a better hammer for this nail:

irb> string = "\"bloggs, Joe (JBloggs, INFO)\" joebloggs, \"bloggs,  
Bill (BBloggs, INFO)\" billbloggs"
=> "\"bloggs, Joe (JBloggs, INFO)\" joebloggs, \"bloggs, Bill  
(BBloggs, INFO)\" billbloggs"
irb> re = %r{"\w+, \w+ \(\w+, \w+\)" \w+}
=> /"\w+, \w+ \(\w+, \w+\)" \w+/
irb> string.scan(re)
=> ["\"bloggs, Joe (JBloggs, INFO)\" joebloggs", "\"bloggs, Bill  
(BBloggs, INFO)\" billbloggs"]

You could paste them back together with a .join('_'), but I suspect  
that you want the pieces later anyway.

-Rob

Rob Biedenharn		http://agileconsultingllc.com
Rob@AgileConsultingLLC.com