From: David Naseby <david.naseby@...>
Date: 2004-02-12T09:48:31+09:00
Subject: Re: (noob) cast string to array?

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Koncept [mailto:user@unknown.invalid]
>
>Hi. What a fantastic language. This is my first day learning using it
>and I *love* it so far.

Welcome to the language. The vast majority of us love it too.

>
>result = { "foobar", "foobar", "foobar" }
>
>I want to basically remove the {}'s and replace them with [] and cast
>result as an array so that I can have some fun within Ruby.

Don't think casting, as its an unhealthy thought. The most direct, but least
recommended method for achieving your goal is evil eval:

result = '{ "foobar", "foobar", "foobar" }'
result.gsub!( /\{/, '[' )
result.gsub!( /\}/, ']' )
arr = eval( result )

It works. Don't do it.

Better to parse the input. The simplest possible way is:

arr = result.scan( /w+/ )

If the strings can only be single words within the quotes.
David Naseby
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~naseby/