From: sabbyxtabby@... (Sabby and Tabby)
Date: 2003-11-23T23:22:13+09:00
Subject: Re: $& write-protected?

"Simon Strandgaard" <none> wrote:

> That will work. But I also need to so assignment to $1 - $9, $', $`, $+

class MatchData
  def MatchData.[](pre, match, post, *captures)
    str = [pre, match, post] * ''
    match = Regexp.quote(match.dup)

    captures.collect! do |cap|
      c = Regexp.quote(cap)
      i = match.index(c) or raise ArgumentError,
        "Not a backreference: #{cap.inspect}"
      match[i + c.size, 0] = ')'
      match.slice!(0, i) + '('
    end

    str =~ /#{captures * '' + match}(?=.{#{post.size}}\z)/m
    $~
  end
end

$~ = MatchData[*%w/alpha beta charlie beta be e ta t a/]

p [$`, $&, $', *$~.captures]