From: Hassan Schroeder <hassan.schroeder@...>
Date: 2010-11-14T04:22:20+09:00
Subject: Re: Very simple regex question

On Sat, Nov 13, 2010 at 11:06 AM, Geometric Patterns
<geometric.patterns@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't understand why the regex in the example below isn't identifying
> that the string is longer than 12 characters long...

>>> if line =~ /[a-zA-Z]{2,12}/

That succeeds if the string *contains* between 2 and 12 characters,
not if it consists solely of 2-12 characters.

line = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
if line =~ /[a-zA-Z]{2,12}/
  puts "good"  # you'll get this
else
  puts "bad"
end

if line =~ /\A[a-zA-Z]{2,12}\Z/
  puts "good"
else
  puts "bad"  # you'll get this
end

FWIW,
-- 
Hassan Schroeder ------------------------ hassan.schroeder@gmail.com
twitter: @hassan