How do I get multiple groups for a regex?

Question

This code:

string1 = "I will drill for a well in walla walla washington."
/(w.ll) /.match(string1)

is returning only will.

Shouldn't it be returning will and well also?

How do I get multiple groups for a regex in Ruby?

Perl, and other languages, support the g flag which tells their Regular Expression parser to look through the target string for all matches. Ruby doesn't have g, so we use scan as @lucapette recommends. — the Tin Man
– the Tin Man, Commented Jan 27, 2012 at 17:22

lucapette · Accepted Answer · 2012-01-27 17:22:49Z

9

It's working fine and it's the expected behaviour. Probably you want to use scan, like in the following:

1.9.2 (main):0 > string1.scan(/(w.ll)/)
=> [["will"], ["well"], ["wall"], ["wall"]]

answered Jan 27, 2012 at 16:24

lucapette

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2 Comments

Why not add some example output so the OP sees why it is the right answer?

Thanks, I misunderstood String#match I think