From: Mike Stok <mike@...>
Date: 2013-05-29T22:43:10+09:00
Subject: Re: AAARRRRGH! s="#$" => SyntaxError: compile error


On 2013-05-29, at 8:57 AM, Tadeusz Bochan <lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:

> This workaround (avoiding eval) works, but is ever so slow !!
> 
> # convert all \nnn to corresponding character
> data=text.gsub(/\\[0-7]{3,4}/) {|r| r.scanf("%c%o").last.chr}
> 
> Can any one suggest something better please ?
> 
> -- 
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

Watch out for the 3 or 4 digit thing there, how can you tell the difference between a value encoded as 3 digits which happens to be followed by a "real" octal digit from the un-encoded data? you either need an explicit terminator e.g. \0123; or \012; or to guarantee the length of the encoded representation. Additionally you need to make sure any literal \ in the input are encoded too so you don't accidentally un-encode sequences which were in your original data.

text.gsub(/\\([0-7]{3})/) { $1.to_i(8).chr }

might be faster.

Hope this helps,

Mike

-- 

Mike Stok <mike@stok.ca>
http://www.stok.ca/~mike/

The "`Stok' disclaimers" apply.