From: William Djaja Tjokroaminata <billtj@...>
Date: 2002-05-18T00:45:12+09:00
Subject: Re: How to Convert Regex Back to String in Exact Match?

Thanks for all the replies.  I conclude that the solution of

  re = Regexp.new('\A' + Regexp.escape(str) + '\z') # (1)

is

  str = re.source.sub(/\A\\A/,'').sub(/\\z\z/,'').gsub(/\\(.)/,'\1') # (2)

However, as already pointed out by several people, I also infer that
probably it is a very good idea to store the original string, because when
I just invoke (2), I actually have little clue whether the regex was
originally created using (1), and when it is actually not, I have not much
control on what (2) will give me.  At least, I learn a very useful Ruby
(or simply Regexp) "trick".  Thanks, everyone.

Regards,

Bill