My purpose is to accept a paragraph of text and find the specified phrase I want to REDACT, or replace.
I made a method that accepts an argument as a string of text. I break down that string into individual characters. Those characters are compared, and if they match, I replace those characters with *.
def search_redact(text)
str = ""
print "What is the word you would like to redact?"
redacted_name = gets.chomp
puts "Desired word to be REDACTED #{redacted_name}! "
#splits name to be redacted, and the text argument into char arrays
redact = redacted_name.split("")
words = text.split("")
#takes char arrays, two loops, compares each character, if they match it
#subs that character out for an asterisks
redact.each do |x|
if words.each do |y|
x == y
y.gsub!(x, '*') # sub redact char with astericks if matches words text
end # end loop for words y
end # end if statment
end # end loop for redact x
# this adds char array to a string so more readable
words.each do |z|
str += z
end
# prints it out so we can see, and returns it to method
print str
return str
end
# calling method with test case
search_redact("thisisapassword")
#current issues stands, needs to erase only if those STRING of characters are
# together and not just anywehre in the document
If I put in a phrase that shares characters with others parts of the text, for example, if I call:
search_redact("thisisapassword")
then it will replace that text too. When it accepts input from the user, I want to get rid of only the text password. But it then looks like this:
thi*i**********
Please help.
This is a classic windowing problem used to find a substring in a string. There are many ways to solve this, some that are much more efficient than others but I'm going to give you a simple one to look at that uses as much of your original code as possible:
def search_redact(text)
str = ""
print "What is the word you would like to redact?"
redacted_name = gets.chomp
puts "Desired word to be REDACTED #{redacted_name}! "
redacted_name = "password"
#splits name to be redacted, and the text argument into char arrays
redact = redacted_name.split("")
words = text.split("")
words.each.with_index do |letter, i|
# use windowing to look for exact matches
if words[i..redact.length + i] == redact
words[i..redact.length + i].each.with_index do |_, j|
# change the letter to an astrisk
words[i + j] = "*"
end
end
end
words.join
end
# calling method with test case
search_redact("thisisapassword")
The idea here is we're taking advantage of array == which allows us to say ["a", "b", "c"] == ["a", "b", "c"]. So now we just walk the input and ask does this sub array equal this other sub array. If they do match, we know we need to change the value so we loop through each element and replace it with a *.
Related
I'm attempting to write a function that takes a string and returns it with all vowels removed. Below is my code.
def vowel(str)
result = ""
new = str.split(" ")
i = 0
while i < new.length
if new[i] == "a"
i = i + 1
elsif new[i] != "a"
result = new[i] + result
end
i = i + 1
end
return result
end
When I run the code, it returns the exact string that I entered for (str). For example, if I enter "apple", it returns "apple".
This was my original code. It had the same result.
def vowel(str)
result = ""
new = str.split(" ")
i = 0
while i < new.length
if new[i] != "a"
result = new[i] + result
end
i = i + 1
end
return result
end
I need to know what I am doing wrong using this methodology. What am I doing wrong?
Finding the bug
Let's see what's wrong with your original code by executing your method's code in IRB:
$ irb
irb(main):001:0> str = "apple"
#=> "apple"
irb(main):002:0> new = str.split(" ")
#=> ["apple"]
Bingo! ["apple"] is not the expected result. What does the documentation for String#split say?
split(pattern=$;, [limit]) → anArray
Divides str into substrings based on a delimiter, returning an array of these substrings.
If pattern is a String, then its contents are used as the delimiter when splitting str. If pattern is a single space, str is split on whitespace, with leading whitespace and runs of contiguous whitespace characters ignored.
Our pattern is a single space, so split returns an array of words. This is definitely not what we want. To get the desired result, i.e. an array of characters, we could pass an empty string as the pattern:
irb(main):003:0> new = str.split("")
#=> ["a", "p", "p", "l", "e"]
"split on empty string" feels a bit hacky and indeed there's another method that does exactly what we want: String#chars
chars → an_array
Returns an array of characters in str. This is a shorthand for str.each_char.to_a.
Let's give it a try:
irb(main):004:0> new = str.chars
#=> ["a", "p", "p", "l", "e"]
Perfect, just as advertised.
Another bug
With the new method in place, your code still doesn't return the expected result (I'm going to omit the IRB prompt from now on):
vowel("apple") #=> "elpp"
This is because
result = new[i] + result
prepends the character to the result string. To append it, we have to write
result = result + new[i]
Or even better, use the append method String#<<:
result << new[i]
Let's try it:
def vowel(str)
result = ""
new = str.chars
i = 0
while i < new.length
if new[i] != "a"
result << new[i]
end
i = i + 1
end
return result
end
vowel("apple") #=> "pple"
That looks good, "a" has been removed ("e" is still there, because you only check for "a").
Now for some refactoring.
Removing the explicit loop counter
Instead of a while loop with an explicit loop counter, it's more idiomatic to use something like Integer#times:
new.length.times do |i|
# ...
end
or Range#each:
(0...new.length).each do |i|
# ...
end
or Array#each_index:
new.each_index do |i|
# ...
end
Let's apply the latter:
def vowel(str)
result = ""
new = str.chars
new.each_index do |i|
if new[i] != "a"
result << new[i]
end
end
return result
end
Much better. We don't have to worry about initializing the loop counter (i = 0) or incrementing it (i = i + 1) any more.
Avoiding character indices
Instead of iterating over the character indices via each_index:
new.each_index do |i|
if new[i] != "a"
result << new[i]
end
end
we can iterate over the characters themselves using Array#each:
new.each do |char|
if char != "a"
result << char
end
end
Removing the character array
We don't even have to create the new character array. Remember the documentation for chars?
This is a shorthand for str.each_char.to_a.
String#each_char passes each character to the given block:
def vowel(str)
result = ""
str.each_char do |char|
if char != "a"
result << char
end
end
return result
end
The return keyword is optional. We could just write result instead of return result, because a method's return value is the last expression that was evaluated.
Removing the explicit string
Ruby even allows you to pass an object into the loop using Enumerator#with_object, thus eliminating the explicit result string:
def vowel(str)
str.each_char.with_object("") do |char, result|
if char != "a"
result << char
end
end
end
with_object passes "" into the block as result and returns it (after the characters have been appended within the block). It is also the last expression in the method, i.e. its return value.
You could also use if as a modifier, i.e.:
result << char if char != "a"
Alternatives
There are many different ways to remove characters from a string.
Another approach is to filter out the vowel characters using Enumerable#reject (it returns a new array containing the remaining characters) and then join the characters (see Nathan's answer for a version to remove all vowels):
def vowel(str)
str.each_char.reject { |char| char == "a" }.join
end
For basic operations like string manipulation however, Ruby usually already provides a method. Check out the other answers for built-in alternatives:
str.delete('aeiouAEIOU') as shown in Gagan Gami's answer
str.tr('aeiouAEIOU', '') as shown in Cary Swoveland's answer
str.gsub(/[aeiou]/i, '') as shown in Avinash Raj's answer
Naming things
Cary Swoveland pointed out that vowel is not the best name for your method. Choose the names for your methods, variables and classes carefully. It's desirable to have a short and succinct method name, but it should also communicate its intent.
vowel(str) obviously has something to do with vowels, but it's not clear what it is. Does it return a vowel or all vowels from str? Does it check whether str is a vowel or contains a vowel?
remove_vowels or delete_vowels would probably be a better choice.
Same for variables: new is an array of characters. Why not call it characters (or chars if space is an issue)?
Bottom line: read the fine manual and get to know your tools. Most of the time, an IRB session is all you need to debug your code.
I should use regex.
str.gsub(/[aeiou]/i, "")
> string= "This Is my sAmple tExt to removE vowels"
#=> "This Is my sAmple tExt to removE vowels"
> string.delete 'aeiouAEIOU'
#=> "Ths s my smpl txt t rmv vwls"
You can create a method like this:
def remove_vowel(str)
result = str.delete 'aeiouAEIOU'
return result
end
remove_vowel("Hello World, This is my sample text")
# output : "Hll Wrld, Ths s my smpl txt"
Live Demo
Assuming you're trying to learn about the basics of programming, rather than finding the quickest one-liner to do this (which would be to use a regular expression as Avinash has said), you have a number of problems with your code you need to change.
new = str.split(" ")
This line is likely the culprit, because it splits the string based on spaces. So your input string would have to be "a p p l e" to have the effect you're looking for.
new = str.split("")
You should also remove the duplicate i = i+1 once you've changed that.
As others have already identified the problems with the OP's code, I will merely suggest an alternative; namely, you could use String#tr:
"Now is the time for all good people...".tr('aeiouAEIOU', '')
#=> "Nw s th tm fr ll gd ppl..."
If regex is not allowed, you can do it this way:
def remove_vowels(string)
string.split("").delete_if { |letter| %w[a e i o u].include? letter }.join
end
This code capitalizes the first letter of each word in a string.
Eg "this is a sentence" becomes "This Is A Sentence".
def capitalize_words(string)
words = string.split(" ")
idx = 0
while idx < words.length
word = words[idx]
word[0] = word[0].upcase
words[idx] = word #this line of code can be made redundant, but why?
idx += 1
end
return words.join(" ")
end
In the while statement, I don't understand why the third line is unnecessary. The second line sets the first letter of a word to capital:
word[0] = word[0].upcase
how does the while statement know to refer back to the previous line
word = words[idx]
to put the new capitalised-letter word back into the words array? I thought that when codes are executed, it always works in a forward fashion, please let me know if this understanding is incorrect.
It's because word variable holds reference for object - the same object that is in words array. So if you modify this object, the object in array is modified also, because it's the same.
BTW what you're trying to do here can be done much easier:
string.split(' ').map(&:capitalize).join(' ')
As Stefan suggested: Keep in mind that capitalize not only converts first character to uppercase, but also converts all remaining chars to lowercase. If this is not what you want, you can also do:
string.split(' ').map { |word| word.slice(0, 1).upcase + word.slice(1..-1) }
or use Stefan's solution with regexp:
string.gsub(/\b\w/) { |ch| ch.upcase }
Keep in mind that \b in regexp will 'split' your word not only by spaces, but by any word boudary.
If you are only using ruby then use answer as per #Marek's answer :
string.split(' ').map(&:capitalize).join(' ')
and If you are using Ruby with Rails then use this:
"this is a sentence".titleize
I'm new to programming and I'm working with Ruby as my starter language. The below code works, but if someone inputs more than one word, the pigatize method only works on the first word and adds the additional ay or way to the last word. How do i get it to apply to each word a user inputs?
# If the first letter is a vowel, add "way" to the end
# If the first letter is a consonant, move it to the end and add "ay"
class PigLatin
VOWELS = %w(a e i o u)
def self.pigatize(text)
if PigLatin.vowel(text[0])
pigalatin = text + 'way'
else
piglatin = text[1..-1] + text[0] + 'ay'
end
end
def self.vowel(first_letter)
VOWELS.include?(first_letter)
end
end
puts 'Please enter a word and I will translate it into Pig Latin. Ippyyay!.'
text = gets.chomp
puts "Pigatized: #{PigLatin.pigatize(text)}"
Chiefly, you need to split the input string into words with String#split, using an expression like:
text.split(' ')
That produces an array of words, which you can loop over with an .each block and run the algorithm on each word, then reassemble them with += and a space at the end + ' '
Incorporating these things into your existing code looks like the following (with comments):
class PigLatin
VOWELS = %w(a e i o u)
def self.pigatize(text)
# Declare the output string
piglatin = ''
# Split the input text into words
# and loop with .each, and 'word' as the iterator
# variable
text.split(' ').each do |word|
if PigLatin.vowel(word[0])
# This was misspelled...
# Add onto the output string with +=
# and finish with an extra space
piglatin += word + 'way' + ' '
else
# Same changes down here...
piglatin += word[1..-1] + word[0] + 'ay' + ' '
end
end
# Adds a .chomp here to get rid of a trailing space
piglatin.chomp
end
def self.vowel(first_letter)
VOWELS.include?(first_letter)
end
end
puts 'Please enter a word and I will translate it into Pig Latin. Ippyyay!.'
text = gets.chomp
puts "Pigatized: #{PigLatin.pigatize(text)}"
There are other ways to handle this than adding to the string with +=. You could, for example add words onto an array with an expression like:
# piglatin declared as an array []
# .push() adds words to the array
piglatin.push(word + 'way')
Then when it's time to output it, use Array#join to connect them back with spaces:
# Reassemble the array of pigatized words into a
# string, joining the array elements by spaces
piglatin.join(' ')
There are alternatives to .each..do for the loop. You could use a for loop like
for word in text.split(' ')
# stuff...
end
...but using the .each do is a bit more idiomatic and more representative of what you'll usually find in Ruby code, though the for loop is more like you'd find in most other languages besides Ruby.
I have an array:
array = ["abhor", "rage", "mad"]
and I want to check if a string includes any word in that array - But only that word (not a substring).
string = 'I made a cake.'
count = 0
array.each do |word|
if string.include? word
count += 1
end
end
However, the above does increment count by 1 because it's picking up the word mad from made in my string. How can I search for only mad and ensure made doesn't get counted?
The array intersection operator & is useful here.
Here's two options, depending on how you define "word":
1) If a word is any sequence of non-whitespace characters, then you can do:
array & string.split
In your example, this results in the intersection of array and words in string, which is empty.
2) If a word is any sequence of alphanumeric characters including _, then you can do:
array & string.scan(/\w+/)
For example if array = ["abhor", "rage", "mad", "cake"] then #1 above will be empty (because you have cake. with a period in the string) but will return ['cake'] for method #2.
I would do it like this:
array = ["abhor", "rage", "mad"]
string = 'I made a cake.'
string.split.count{|word| array.include?(word)}
The problem with doing a simple split is that it won't take into account punctuation. What you need is a regex, which is a little more complicated.
array.each do |word|
count += 1 if string.match(/\W#{word}\W/)
end
If you're willing to go down the regex road, \b represent a word boundary. This example, which includes all of the words in your sentence and a few which are fragments, correctly returns 4.
array = ["abhor", "rage", "mad", "I", "made", "a", "cake", "cak"]
string = 'I made a cake.'
count = 0
array.each do |word|
if string =~ /\b#{word}\b/
count += 1
end
end
Try splitting up the words first.
words = string.split
count = 0
words.each do |word|
count += 1 if array.include? word
end
Look at this code. I got the desired result, which was to scan a person's input to see if it matches an internal array.
sentence = []
compare = []
database_array = ["Mouse", "killer", "Blood", "Vampires", "True Blood", "Immortal" ]
def parser_sentence compare
database_array = ["Mouse", "killer", "Blood", "Vampires", "True Blood", "Immortal"]
initial_index = 0
while compare.count > initial_index
compare.each do |item|
if item == database_array[initial_index]
puts "You found the key word, it was #{item}"
else
puts "Sorry the key word was not inside your sentence"
end
end
initial_index = initial_index + 1
end
end
puts "Please enter in your sentences of words and i will parse it for the key word."
sentence = gets.chomp
compare = sentence.split (" ")
Because each loop is telling it to repeat, it does so, but how can I stop this?
In this case, regex will be more efficient and less error prone than splitting the input string, especially since you have a two-word phrase in the keyword list.
def parser_sentence(sentence)
matching_words = sentence.scan(Regexp.union(database_array))
if matching_words.empty?
puts "Sorry the key word was not inside your sentence"
else
puts "You found the key word, it was #{matching_words.join(" ")}"
end
end
Slight modifications can make it case sensitive (if you need it), or add word boundaries to the keywords so as to not match partial words.
One possible solution that doesn't involve looping is to intersect your compare and database_array arrays, like so:
matching_words = compare & database_array
This will compare both arrays and create a new array containing only elements that are common to both. For example:
# If the user input the sentence "The Mouse is Immortal", then...
compare = ["The", "Mouse", "is", "Immortal"]
# matching_words will contain an array with elements ["Mouse", "Immortal"]
matching_words = compare & database_array
You can then check the length of the array and display out your messages. I believe this can replace your entire function like so:
def parser_sentence compare
matching_words = compare & database_array
if matching_works.length > 0
puts "You found the key word, it was #{matching_words.join(" ")}"
else
puts "Sorry the key word was not inside your sentence"
end
end
Note about the use of join, if you're unfamiliar with that, it basically creates a string using each element in the array separated by the separator string passed in, which in my example is merely a blank space; substitute for your own separate of course, or whatever you want to do with it.