Split specific string by regular expression

Question

i am trying to get an array that contain of aaaaa,bbbbb,ccccc as split output below.

a_string = "aaaaa[x]bbbbb,ccccc";
split_output a_string.split.split(%r{[,|........]+})

what supposed i put as replacement of ........ ?

You have to give some more criteria. For example you just added , as a divisor but, what else do you expect could be there?, for the current example this would work "aaaaa[x]bbbbb,ccccc".split(%r{[,|\[x\]]+}). — derp
– derp, Commented Sep 30, 2011 at 3:05

Phrogz · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-30 15:17:10Z

2

No need for a regex when it's just a literal:

irb(main):001:0> a_string = "aaaaa[x]bbbbb"
irb(main):002:0> a_string.split "[x]"
=> ["aaaaa", "bbbbb"]

If you want to split by "open bracket...anything...close bracket" then:

irb(main):003:0> a_string.split /\[.+?\]/
=> ["aaaaa", "bbbbb"]

Edit: I'm still not sure what your criteria is, but let's guess that what you are really doing is looking for runs of 2-or-more of the same character:

irb(main):001:0> a_string = "aaaaa[x]bbbbb,ccccc"
=> "aaaaa[x]bbbbb,ccccc"
irb(main):002:0> a_string.scan(/((.)\2+)/).map(&:first)
=> ["aaaaa", "bbbbb", "ccccc"]

Edit 2: If you want to split by either the of the literal strings "," or "[x]" then:

irb(main):003:0> a_string.split /,|\[x\]/
=> ["aaaaa", "bbbbb", "ccccc"]

The | part of the regular expression allows expressions on either side to match, and the backslashes are needed since otherwise the characters [ and ] have special meaning. (If you tried to split by /,|[x]/ then it would split on either a comma or an x character.)

edited Sep 30, 2011 at 15:17

answered Sep 30, 2011 at 2:34

Phrogz

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3 Comments

iwan Over a year ago

hmm sorry i simplify too much my question description.. i still need to use regex because i have some other logic, this is just one of split criteria (i edit the sample in question)

Phrogz Over a year ago

@iwan I've edited my answer, but your question is still not clear enough. What are the strings you're looking for? What are the strings that will be separating the strings you're looking for.

iwan Over a year ago

thanks Phrogz for putting so much effort to help me, basically you've answered my question.. but they are in two different codes (first two). What I need can be summarized as "what is the regular expression to split by comma or by [x] in any random sentence".

zellio · Accepted Answer · 2011-09-30 02:34:46Z

1

no regex needed, just use "[x]"

answered Sep 30, 2011 at 2:34

zellio

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