From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2012-05-01T06:00:11+09:00
Subject: Re: delete character from array

On Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 7:11 PM, Brian Candler <lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> I think this is right:
>
>>> a.gsub(/(..)./m) { $1 }
> => "th qic bow fx ums ve te az dg"

No need for a block.  We can have it a bit more efficient

irb(main):001:0> a = "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
=> "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"
irb(main):002:0> a.gsub /(..)./m, '\\1'
=> "th qic bow fx ums ve te az dg"

But this deletes every third _character_.  It will work the same for
OP's strings but may not work in other cases.  For really deleting
_letters_ we could do

irb(main):004:0> c=0; a.gsub(/\w/) {|ch| (c+=1) % 3 == 0 ? nil : ch}
=> "th quck ron fx jmp ovr te lzy og"

Kind regards

robert

-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
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