From: Wesley J Landaker <wjl@...>
Date: 2003-06-27T01:13:47+09:00
Subject: Re: String#split(' ') and whitespace (perl user's surprise)

On Thursday 26 June 2003 9:14 am, D T wrote:
> > I think you want strip instead of squeeze:
> >
> > irb(main):002:0> "   I    like   broccolli   ".squeeze
> > => " I like brocoli "
> > irb(main):003:0> "   I    like   broccolli   ".strip
> > => "I    like   broccolli"
>
> Well, in this case, squeeze and strip is almost the same,
> because later, you will split on space char.
> ( so squeeze space between first and second item is not a problem at
> all )
>
> The only problem on squeez is ONLY on the last item
> '  A  B      C    D    E' after squeeze.split(' ', 3) ==> ['A', 'B',
> 'C D E '] last item ( middle and tail will squeez! )

I was referring to the [sometimes unintended] effect of squeeze by 
default squeezing *all characters*, not just whitespace.

 '  AAA  BB      CCCCCC    DDDDDDDDDDDDDD    EEE'.squeeze.split(' ', 3) 
=> ['A', 'B', 'C D E'] 

Maybe that's what you want, but I bet that could take you by surprise if 
you were expecting it to just squeeze whitespace. =)

> An avantage squeeze then strip is like, if you want :
> irb(main):002:0> 'A,,,,B,,,,,C,,,D,,E,,'.squeeze(',').split(',',3)
> ["A", "B", "C,D,E,"]
> # can strip do that ?! :-)

Heh heh, I didn't say squeeze wasn't useful. ;) In my above example you 
can squeeze on ' ' and it works like you said:

'  AAA  BB      CCCCCC    DDDDDDDDDDDDDD    EEE'.squeeze(' ').split(' ', 
3) => ["AAA", "BB", "CCCCCC DDDDDDDDDDDDDD EEE"]

-- 
Wesley J. Landaker - wjl@icecavern.net
OpenPGP FP: C99E DF40 54F6 B625 FD48  B509 A3DE 8D79 541F F830