From: why the lucky stiff <ruby-talk@...>
Date: 2002-11-15T00:43:44+09:00
Subject: Re: regex help

Shashank Date (sdate@kc.rr.com) wrote:
> Now I would like to modify it to generate the following:
> 
> "Here I have 'two ''quoted'' matches' and 'here''s the second' one.".scan(
> ???)
> ==> [["Here"],["I"],["have"],["two ''quoted'' matches"], ["and"],["here''s
> the second"],["one."]]

A simpler regexp to gather characters around the quoted string:

  quote1_re = /((?:''|[^'])+)/
  str = "Here I have 'two ''quoted'' matches' and 'here''s the second'."

  str.scan( quote1_re )
    ==>[["Here I have "], ["two ''quoted'' matches"], [" and "],
        ["here''s the second"], ["."]]

For the outcome you'd like:

  quote1_re = /(?:'((?:''|[^'])+)'|(\S+))/

  str.scan( quote1_re ).flatten.compact
      ==>["Here", "I", "have", "two ''quoted'' matches", "and", 
          "here''s the second", "."]

Definitely a lot slower.  You could probably reduce it further, but it's
enough to get you started.  Goo luck.

_why