Splitting a string by a repeated regex in Ruby

Question

I would like to parse text and separate it into tasks and subtasks:

'Asubsubsubtask:Bsubtask:Ctask:D'.split(/((sub)*task)\:/i)
#=> ["A", "subsubsubtask", "sub", "B", "subtask", "sub", "C", "task", "D"]

The last part of the result array is not consistent and doesn't allow me to use #each_slice(3) processing the array.

What would you suggest me to use instead of matching each element of the array with a similar regex?

EDIT1:

More detailed example:

Task: Main
description
Defaults: some params

Subtask: Basic
description
Options: A B C

Subsubtask: Reading
description
Parameters: some params

and I try to split it by /^((sub)*task)\:/i

moinudin · Accepted Answer · 2011-01-03 12:35:18Z

1

Separate it into two split calls:

irb(main):007:0> 'Asubsubsubtask:Bsubtask:Ctask:D'.split(':').collect{|s| s.split(/((sub)*task)/i)}
=> [["A", "subsubsubtask", "sub"], ["B", "subtask", "sub"], ["C", "task"], ["D"]]

answered Jan 3, 2011 at 12:35

moinudin

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6 Comments

Andy Over a year ago

@marcog, thanks! There are other keywords in my text, which I would like to parse after splitting into tasks. General form /^([a-z])\:/i

moinudin Over a year ago

@Andrei Where are the other keywords? Please give an example.

Andy Over a year ago

@marcog, Just did it. Please, see the updated question! I think I better split by task and then each of them by (sub)*task - then the problem resolves.

moinudin Over a year ago

@Andrei And what do you want to get out? (Side note: Please ask what you really need help with from the beginning. Read this).

moinudin Over a year ago

@Andrei The reason for that is (task): (in ...Ctask:D) matches as a separator. This returns the token task because it's in a group, then splits ...Ctask:D into ...C and D.

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