delete matched characters using regex in ruby

Question

I need to write a regex for the following text:

"How can you restate your point (something like: \"<font>First</font>\") as a clear topic?"

that keeps whatever is between the

\" \"

characters (in this case <font>First</font>

I came up with this:

/"How can you restate your point \(something like: |\) as a clear topic\?"/

but how do I get ruby to remove the unwanted surrounding text and only return <font>First</font>?

A regex does not keep anything; a regex does not do anything. It is just an object. A method (that uses a regex) may do something, as well as keep something. — sawa
– sawa, Commented Jul 20, 2017 at 19:24

Sagar Pandya · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-20 20:25:15Z

2

lookbehind, lookahead and making what is greedy, lazy.

 str[/(?<=\").+?(?=\")/] #=> "<font>First</font>"

edited Jul 20, 2017 at 20:25

answered Jul 20, 2017 at 19:31

Sagar Pandya

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2 Comments

Wiktor Stribiżew Over a year ago

s[/"([^"]+)"/, 1] version looks tidier to me.

Sagar Pandya Over a year ago

@WiktorStribiżew I agree. That's so good that I shan't forget it.

dawg · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-20 20:01:55Z

0

If you have strings just like that, you can .split and get the first:

> str.split(/"/)[1]
=> "<font>First</font>"

answered Jul 20, 2017 at 20:01

dawg

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1 Comment

Cary Swoveland Over a year ago

..or str.split('"')[1]. Personally, I only use a regex when a string won't do.

Cary Swoveland · Accepted Answer · 2017-07-20 20:56:42Z

0

You certainly can use a regular expression, but you don't need to:

str = "How can you restate (like: \"<font>First</font>\") as a clear topic?"

str[str.index('"')+1...str.rindex('"')]
  #=> "<font>First</font>"

or, for those like me who never use three dots:

str[str.index('"')+1..str.rindex('"')-1]

answered Jul 20, 2017 at 20:56

Cary Swoveland

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