I have a string containing an escape character:
word = "x\nz"
and I would like to print it as x\nz.
However, puts word gives me:
x
z
How do I get puts word to output x\nz instead of creating a new line?
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2 Answers
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I have a string containing an escape character:
No, you don't. You have a string containing a newline.
How do I get
puts wordto outputx\nzinstead of creating a new line?
The easiest way would be to just create the string in the format you want in the first place:
word = 'x\nz'
# or
word = "x\\nz"
If that isn't possible, you can translate the string the way you want:
word = word.gsub("\n", '\n')
# or
word.gsub!("\n", '\n')
You may be tempted to do something like
puts word.inspect
# or
p word
Don't do that! #inspect is not guaranteed to have any particular format. The only requirement it has, is that it should return a human-readable string representation that is suitable for debugging. You should never rely on the content of #inspect, the only thing you should rely on, is that it is human readable.
1 Comment
preferred_anon
What exactly is wrong with using
#inspect? The docs say "Returns a printable version of str, surrounded by quote marks, with special characters escaped.". This sounds like exactly what the OP wants, and sounds like a perfectly reasonable definition of a 'format'. Can you clarify your objection?