From: David Naseby <david.naseby@...>
Date: 2004-02-12T10:34:14+09:00
Subject: Re: (noob) cast string to array?

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Koncept [mailto:user@unknown.invalid]
>In article <200402120054.23296.martin@zsdfherg.com>, Martin Hart
><martin@zsdfherg.com> wrote:
>
>> irb(main):002:0> s = '["a string", "another string"]'
>> => "[\"a string\", \"another string\"]"
>> irb(main):003:0> array = eval s
>> => ["a string", "another string"]
>> irb(main):004:0> array.class
>> => Array
>
>This is great! Thanks Martin. Thanks for all the fast responses as well
>everybody.

Avoid eval!!!

>I just wanted to follow up on some of the responses here:
>
>1) Suggestion to use gsub over sub. I assume that gsub is global? 

You assume correctly. Either will work in your particular case. 

>2) what is the "!" responsible for doing? (Remember me = n00b ) 

Its a hint for a "dangerous" method - generally, one that changes the
receiver. It signals to the reader its intent, but syntactically, its just
part of the identifier. Its like ? methods should return a bool (eg,
x.is_nil? ).

David
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~naseby/