From: Brian Candler <lists@...>
Date: 2012-05-01T16:44:49+09:00
Subject: Re: delete character from array

Robert Klemme wrote in post #1059013:
> No need for a block.

I used the block form because I believe it to be clearer (no issues 
about backslash escaping)

> 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"

Ah, but aren't all those repeated method calls for integer addition and 
modulo arithmetic going to be inefficient? :-)

You could use a single gsub instead:

>> a.gsub(/(\w[^\w]*\w[^\w]*)\w([^\w]*)/, '\\1\\2')
=> "th quck ron fx jmp ovr te lzy og"

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