From: Dossy <dossy@...>
Date: 2002-09-20T09:56:30+09:00
Subject: Re: Thoughts on improving usage of Regexp#match

On 2002.09.20, Hal E. Fulton <hal9000@hypermetrics.com> wrote:
> Please feel free to point out obvious things 
> that I'm not seeing here.
> 
> I was looking at a piece of code like this:
> 
>   sub1 = ""
>   if str =~ regex
>     sub1 = $1
>   end

Hee hee.

> and I thought three things:
>   1. I've never liked the $1 -- I usually avoid 
>      Perlish variables, even the common ones.
>   2. I don't like the if.
>   3. I don't like having to assign sub1 twice.
> 
> So I tried writing:
> 
>   sub1 = regex.match(str)[1] || ""

a = /x/.match("abc") && $~[1] || ""     # a => ""

b = /(b)/.match("abc") && $~[1] || ""   # b => "b"

c = /b/.match("abc") && $~[1] || ""     # c => ""

I think that #2 in your list above is a sign of Perl envy where Perl has
no notion of nil vs empty string (which I brought up on this list a
while back) to which Timmy Hammerquist said "even Larry Wall says you
should test the success or failure of a regex!"

Having to pre-initialize the variable with an empty string does seem
kinda lame, but it's The Ruby Way, isn't it?

-- Dossy

-- 
Dossy Shiobara                       mail: dossy@panoptic.com 
Panoptic Computer Network             web: http://www.panoptic.com/ 
  "He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
    folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)