Interpolating Ruby code within quotes within a string

Question

I have a string like this:

'say "Twenty-five minutes remaining."'

How would I interpolate more dynamic content into that message? I already know the approach below doesn't work, as the content is returned literally.

'say "#{minutes_remaining} minutes remaining."'

Mischa · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-09 08:41:27Z

8

This works:

minutes_remaining = 25
system("say '#{minutes_remaining} minutes remaining.'")

String interpolation only works with double quotes, not single quotes.

answered Oct 9, 2012 at 8:41

Mischa

43.4k9 gold badges101 silver badges111 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

9 Comments

sawa Over a year ago

That is not what the OP originally wanted. What was wanted is "say \"#{minutes_remaining} minutes remaining.\"".

Sergio Tulentsev Over a year ago

@sawa: She's happy with the solution. Do you claim to know better what she wanted? :)

sawa Over a year ago

@SergioTulentsev My comment is based on what the OP wrote in the question. It is written using double quote around the substring, and if the OP is still happy with single quotation, then that shows sloppiness on the OP.

sawa Over a year ago

@Mischa In the first example, the OP has "Twenty-five minutes remaining.", which indicates that that part is expected to be literally double quoted. The OP continued to try to use double quotation in "#{minutes_remaining} minutes remaining.", but the problem was that interpolation has to be passed on to the entire string, which means the entire string must be double quoted, and that will interfere with the literal double quotes that is needed inside the string. Your answer switched the expected literal double quotes with single quotes. I don't understand what your problem is.

Michael De Silva Over a year ago

+1 to @sawa's example as it elucidates the use of interpolating double-quotes within a double-quoted string by escaping the nested double-quotes.

|

Fangxing · Accepted Answer · 2024-10-30 20:38:11Z

7

You can escape the double quotes with backslashes:

puts "say \"#{minutes_remaining} minutes remaining.\""

Or even better, use %{}, without needing to escape double quotes

puts %{say "#{minutes_remaining} minutes remaining."}

related question Escaping single and double quotes in a string in ruby?

edited Oct 30, 2024 at 20:38

answered Mar 15, 2017 at 1:39

Fangxing

6,2252 gold badges56 silver badges58 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Interpolating Ruby code within quotes within a string

2 Answers 2

9 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

2 Answers 2

9 Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related