From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2012-05-02T01:15:11+09:00
Subject: Re: delete character from array

On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 9:44 AM, Brian Candler <lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> 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"

Oh, yes of course: much better!  And we can get rid of all those
brackets and a bit more:

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 /(\w\W*\w\W*)\w/, '\\1'
=> "th quck ron fx jmp ovr te lzy og"

Kind regards

robert


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