I have the following output:
time = 15:40:32.81
And I want to eliminate : and the . so that it looks like this:
15403281
I tried doing a
time.gsub(/\:\s/,'')
but that didn't work.
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4 Answers
"15:40:32.81".gsub(/:|\./, "")
Comments
time = '15:40:32.81'
numeric_time = time.gsub(/[^0-9]+/, '')
# numeric_time will be 15403281
[^0-9] specifies a character class containing any character which is not a digit (^ at the beginning of a class negates it), which will then be replaced by an empty string (or, in other words, removed).
(Updated to replace \d with 0-9 for clarity, though they are equivalent).
answered Aug 18, 2010 at 18:26
Daniel Vandersluis
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4 Comments
todb
The + isn't necessary; time.gsub(/[^\d]/,"") works just as well.
Daniel Vandersluis
@todb true, but it'll cause a bigger chunk of the string to be replaced at once if multiple non-numeric characters appear in a row.
todb
On such a short string, neither variation matters a whole lot. :) I also never use [^\d]. [^0-9] is only one more character and I think it lends reading clarity. I have no idea if there's a performance difference between the two.
Daniel Vandersluis
@todb As far as I know, if there is any difference it would be negligible.
\D could have been used instead of the character class, for that matter.If you want to be fancy and use an actual time object...
time = Time.now
time.strftime("%H%M%S") + time.usec.to_s[0,2]
# returns "15151788"
Comments
time.delete ':.'
But it'll edit your variable. If you don't want it:
time.dup.delete ':.'