Replace characters from string without changing its object_id in Ruby - ruby

Question

How can I replace characters from string without changing its object_id?
For example:
string = "this is a test"
The first 7 characters need to be replaced with capitalized characters like: "THIS IS a Test" and the object_id needs to be the same. In which way can I sub or replace the characters to make it happen?

Answer 1

You can do it like this:
string = "this is a test"
string[0, 7] = string[0, 7].upcase

Answer 2

With procedural languages, one might write the equivalent of:
string = "this is in jest"
string.object_id
#=> 70309969974760
(1..7).each { |i| string[i] = string[i].upcase }
#=> 1..7
string
#=> "tHIS IS in jest"
string.object_id
#=> 70309969974760
This is not very Ruby-like, but it does offer the advantage over #sawa's solution that it does not create a temporary 7-character string. (Well, it does create a one-character string.) This is unimportant for strings of reasonable length (and for those I'd certainly concur with sawa), but it could be significant for really, really, really long strings.
Another way to do this is as follows:
string.each_char.with_index { |c,i|
string[i] = string[i].upcase if (1..7).cover?(i) }
#=> "tHIS IS in jest"
string.object_id
#=> 70309969974760
This second way might be more efficient if string is not much larger than string[start_index..end_index].
Edit:
In a comment the OP indicates that the string is to be stripped, squeeze and reversed as well as certain characters converted to upper case. That could be done on the string in place, without creating a copy, as follows:
def strip_upcase_squeeze_reverse_whew(string, upcase_range, squeeze_str=nil)
string.strip!
upcase_range.each { |i| string[i] = string[i].upcase }
squeeze_str.nil? ? string.squeeze! : string.squeeze!(squeeze_str)
string.reverse!
end
I have assumed the four operations would be performed in a particular order, but if the order should be different, that's an easy fix.
string = " this may bee inn jest, butt it's alsoo a test "
string.object_id
#=> 70309970103280
strip_upcase_squeeze_reverse_whew(string, (1..7))
#=> "tset a osla s'ti tub ,tsej ni eb YAM SIHt"
string.object_id
#=> 70309970103280
The steps:
string = "this may bee inn jest, butt it's alsoo a test"
#=> "this may bee inn jest, butt it's alsoo a test"
upcase_range = (1..7)
#=> 1..7
string.strip!
#=> nil
string
#=> "this may bee inn jest, butt it's alsoo a test"
upcase_range.each { |i| string[i] = string[i].upcase }
#=> 1..7
string
#=> "tHIS MAY bee inn jest, butt it's alsoo a test"
squeeze_str.nil? ? string.squeeze! : string.squeeze!(squeeze_str)
#=> "tHIS MAY be in jest, but it's also a test"
string
#=> "tHIS MAY be in jest, but it's also a test"
string.reverse!
#=> "tset a osla s'ti tub ,tsej ni eb YAM SIHt"
Notice that in this example, strip! does not remove any characters, and therefore returns nil. Similarly, squeeze! would return nil if there is nothing to squeeze. It is for that reason that strip! and squeeze cannot be chained.
A second example:
string = " thiiiis may beeee in jeeest"
strip_upcase_squeeze_reverse_whew(string, (12..14), "aeiouAEIOU")

Answer 3

Adding onto a string without changing its object id:
foo = "foo"
# => "foo"
foo.object_id
# => 70196045363960
foo << "bar"
# => "foobar"
foo.object_id
# => 70196045363960
Replace an entire string without changing its object id
foo
# => "foo"
foo.object_id
# => 70196045363960
foo.gsub!(/./, '') << 'bar'
# => 'bar'
foo.object_id
# => 70196045363960
Replace part of a string without changing its object id
foo
# => "foo"
foo.object_id
# => 70196045363960
foo.gsub!(/o/, 'z')
# => 'fzz'
foo.object_id
# => 70196045363960