From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2010-01-25T18:49:02+09:00
Subject: Re: how to represent a single backslash?

2010/1/25 Xavier Noëlle <xavier.noelle@gmail.com>:
> irb(main):001:0> puts "\\"
> \
> => nil
> irb(main):002:0> puts '\\'
> \
> => nil
>
> There is a difference between what is written in your code and what
> the output will be.
> "\\" is not the same as "\", which is why irb prints the string
> constant as you entered it. But if you print it, it will output what
> you expected, i.e. a backslash.

Right.  Additional explanation: the reason for this is that IRB by
default uses #inspect - the same method that #p uses for printing:

irb(main):007:0> s = "a"
=> "a"
irb(main):008:0> puts s
a
=> nil
irb(main):009:0> p s
"a"
=> "a"
irb(main):010:0> puts s.inspect
"a"
=> nil
irb(main):011:0> s
=> "a"
irb(main):012:0>

Kind regards

robert


-- 
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