I was working on a coderbyte problem where I output the number of occurrences of a character along with the corresponding character. For example "wwwggopp" would return 3w2g1o2p. I was able to solve it but I compared my answer to someone else's and they came up with the following:
def RunLength(str)
chunks = str.scan(/((\w)\2*)/)
output = ' '
chunks.each do |chunk|
output << chunk[0].size.to_s + chunk[1]
end
output
end
I get most of the code but what exactly is happening here?
(/((\w)\2*)/)
I understand that \w refers to any character and \2 is a 'backreference' and * refers to 0 or more instances...but together, I'm not sure what it means, mostly because I don't know really know what a backreference is and how it works. I've been reading about it but I'm still struggling to grasp the concept. Does the \2 refer to the "2nd group" and if so, what exactly is the "2nd group"?
Backreferences recall what was matched by a capturing group. A backreference is specified as a backslash (\); followed by a digit indicating the number of the group to be recalled.
Your regular expression broke down:
( # group and capture to \1:
( # group and capture to \2:
\w # word characters (a-z, A-Z, 0-9, _)
) # end of \2
\2* # what was matched by capture \2 (0 or more times)
) # end of \1
Related
I have this code running inside a buffer (used to unescape a JS string in Ruby):
elsif hex_substring =~ /^\\u[0-9a-fA-F]{1,4}/
hex_substring.scan(/^((\\u[\da-fA-F]{4}){1,})/) do |match|
hex_byte = match[0]
buffer << JSON.load(%Q("#{hex_byte}"))
hex_index += hex_byte.length
end
...
I have a concern that the scan() is matching a bit too much:
hex_substring.scan(/^((\\u[\da-fA-F]{4}){1,})/)
# => [["\\ud83c\\udfec", "\\udfec"]]
I am using only "\\ud83c\\udfec", not "\\udfec".
Is there a way in Ruby or in regex to grab only the first part?
You should use a single grouping construct here, the one to match 1 or more occurrences of four hex chars, and omit the inner capturing group that resulted in an extra item in the resulting array:
.scan(/^(?:\\u[\da-fA-F]{4})+/)
Note that + is a simpler and shorter way to write {1,} (one or more occurrences).
Details
^ - start of string
(?: - start of a non-capturing group (what it matches won't be added to the final scan result):
\\u - a \u substring
[\da-fA-F]{4} - four hex chars
)+ - 1 or more occurrences (of the group pattern sequence).
I am currently working on a ruby program to calculate terms. It works perfectly fine except for one thing: brackets. I need to filter the content or at least, to put the content into an array, but I have tried for an hour to come up with a solution. Here is my code:
splitted = term.split(/\(+|\)+/)
I need an array instead of the brackets, for example:
"1-(2+3)" #=>["1", "-", ["2", "+", "3"]]
I already tried this:
/(\((?<=.*)\))/
but it returned:
Invalid pattern in look-behind.
Can someone help me with this?
UPDATE
I forgot to mention, that my program will split the term, I only need the content of the brackets to be an array.
If you need to keep track of the hierarchy of parentheses with arrays, you won't manage it just with regular expressions. You'll need to parse the string word by word, and keep a stack of expressions.
Pseudocode:
Expressions = new stack
Add new array on stack
while word in string:
if word is "(": Add new array on stack
Else if word is ")": Remove the last array from the stack and add it to the (next) last array of the stack
Else: Add the word to the last array of the stack
When exiting the loop, there should be only one array in the stack (if not, you have inconsistent opening/closing parentheses).
Note: If your ultimate goal is to evaluate the expression, you could save time and parse the string in Postfix aka Reverse-Polish Notation.
Also consider using off-the-shelf libraries.
A solution depends on the pattern you expect between the parentheses, which you have not specified. (For example, for "(st12uv)" you might want ["st", "12", "uv"], ["st12", "uv"], ["st1", "2uv"] and so on). If, as in your example, it is a natural number followed by a +, followed by another natural number, you could do this:
str = "1-( 2+ 3)"
r = /
\(\s* # match a left parenthesis followed by >= 0 whitespace chars
(\d+) # match one or more digits in a capture group
\s* # match >= 0 whitespace chars
(\+) # match a plus sign in a capture group
\s* # match >= 0 whitespace chars
(\d+) # match one or more digits in a capture group
\s* # match >= 0 whitespace chars
\) # match a right parenthesis
/x
str.scan(r0).first
=> ["2", "+", "3"]
Suppose instead + could be +, -, * or /. Then you could change:
(\+)
to:
([-+*\/])
Note that, in a character class, + needn't be escaped and - needn't be escaped if it is the first or last character of the class (as in those cases it would not signify a range).
Incidentally, you received the error message, "Invalid pattern in look-behind" because Ruby's lookarounds cannot contain variable-length matches (i.e., .*). With positive lookbehinds you can get around that by using \K instead. For example,
r = /
\d+ # match one or more digits
\K # forget everything previously matched
[a-z]+ # match one or more lowercase letters
/x
"123abc"[r] #=> "abc"
I have a string with chars inside and I would like to match only the chars around a string.
"This is a [1]test[/1] string. And [2]test[/2]"
Rubular http://rubular.com/r/f2Xwe3zPzo
Currently, the code in the link matches the text inside the special chars, how can I change it?
Update
To clarify my question. It should only match if the opening and closing has the same number.
"[2]first[/2] [1]second[/2]"
In the code above, only first should match and not second. The text inside the special chars (first), should be ignored.
Try this:
(\[[0-9]\]).+?(\[\/[0-9]\])
Permalink to the example on Rubular.
Update
Since you want to remove the 'special' characters, try this instead:
foo = "This is a [1]test[/1] string. And [2]test[/2]"
foo.gsub /\[\/?\d\]/, ""
# => "This is a test string. And test"
Update, Part II
You only want to remove the 'special' characters when the surrounding tags match, so what about this:
foo = "This is a [1]test[/1] string. And [2]test[/2], but not [3]test[/2]"
foo.gsub /(?:\[(?<number>\d)\])(?<content>.+?)(?:\[\/\k<number>\])/, '\k<content>'
# => "This is a test string. And test, but not [3]test[/2]"
\[([0-9])\].+?\[\/\1\]
([0-9]) is a capture since it is surrounded with parentheses. The \1 tells it to use the result of that capture. If you had more than one capture, you could reference them as well, \2, \3, etc.
Rubular
You can also use a named capture, rather than \1 to make it a little less cryptic. As in: \[(?<number>[0-9])\].+?\[\/\k<number>\]
Here's a way to do it that uses the form of String#gsub that takes a block. The idea is to pull strings such as "[1]test[/1]" into the block, and there remove the unwanted bits.
str = "This is a [1]test[/1] string. And [2]test[/2], plus [3]test[/99]"
r = /
\[ # match a left bracket
(\d+) # capture one or more digits in capture group 1
\] # match a right bracket
.+? # match one or more characters lazily
\[\/ # match a left bracket and forward slash
\1 # match the contents of capture group 1
\] # match a right bracket
/x
str.gsub(r) { |s| s[/(?<=\]).*?(?=\[)/] }
#=> "This is a test string. And test, plus [3]test[/99]"
Aside: When I first heard of named capture groups, they seemed like a great idea, but now I wonder if they really make regexes easier to read than \1, \2....
I have unfortunately wandered into a situation where I need regex using Ruby. Basically I want to match this string after the underscore and before the first parentheses. So the end result would be 'table salt'.
_____ table salt (1) [F]
As usual I tried to fight this battle on my own and with rubular.com. I got the first part
^_____ (Match the beginning of the string with underscores ).
Then I got bolder,
^_____(.*?) ( Do the first part of the match, then give me any amount of words and letters after it )
Regex had had enough and put an end to that nonsense and crapped out. So I was wondering if anyone on stackoverflow knew or would have any hints on how to say my goal to the Ruby Regex parser.
EDIT: Thanks everyone, this is the pattern I ended up using after creating it with rubular.
ingredientNameRegex = /^_+([^(]*)/;
Everything got better once I took a deep breath, and thought about what I was trying to say.
str = "_____ table salt (1) [F]"
p str[ /_{3}\s(.+?)\s+\(/, 1 ]
#=> "table salt"
That says:
Find at least three underscores
and a whitespace character (\s)
and then one or more (+) of any character (.), but as little as possible (?), up until you find
one or more whitespace characters,
and then a literal (
The parens in the middle save that bit, and the 1 pulls it out.
Try this: ^[_]+([^(]*)\(
It will match lines starting with one or more underscores followed by anything not equal to an opening bracket: http://rubular.com/r/vthpGpVr4y
Here's working regex:
str = "_____ table salt (1) [F]"
match = str.match(/_([^_]+?)\(/)
p match[1].strip # => "table salt"
You could use
^_____\s*([^(]+?)\s*\(
^_____ match the underscore from the beginning of string
\s* matches any whitespace character
( grouping start
[^(]+ matches all non ( character at least once
? matches the shortest possible string (non greedy)
) grouping end
\s* matches any whitespace character
\( find the (
"_____ table salt (1) [F]".gsub(/[_]\s(.+)\s\(/, ' >>>\1<<< ')
# => "____ >>>table salt<<< 1) [F]"
It seems to me the simplest regex to do what you want is:
/^_____ ([\w\s]+) /
That says:
leading underscores, space, then capture any combination of word chars or spaces, then another space.
I would like to insert a <wbr> tag every 5 characters.
Input: s = 'HelloWorld-Hello guys'
Expected outcome: Hello<wbr>World<wbr>-Hell<wbr>o guys
s = 'HelloWorld-Hello guys'
s.scan(/.{5}|.+/).join("<wbr>")
Explanation:
Scan groups all matches of the regexp into an array. The .{5} matches any 5 characters. If there are characters left at the end of the string, they will be matched by the .+. Join the array with your string
There are several options to do this. If you just want to insert a delimiter string you can use scan followed by join as follows:
s = '12345678901234567'
puts s.scan(/.{1,5}/).join(":")
# 12345:67890:12345:67
.{1,5} matches between 1 and 5 of "any" character, but since it's greedy, it will take 5 if it can. The allowance for taking less is to accomodate the last match, where there may not be enough leftovers.
Another option is to use gsub, which allows for more flexible substitutions:
puts s.gsub(/.{1,5}/, '<\0>')
# <12345><67890><12345><67>
\0 is a backreference to what group 0 matched, i.e. the whole match. So substituting with <\0> effectively puts whatever the regex matched in literal brackets.
If whitespaces are not to be counted, then instead of ., you want to match \s*\S (i.e. a non whitespace, possibly preceded by whitespaces).
s = '123 4 567 890 1 2 3 456 7 '
puts s.gsub(/(\s*\S){1,5}/, '[\0]')
# [123 4 5][67 890][ 1 2 3 45][6 7]
Attachments
Source code and output on ideone.com
References
regular-expressions.info
Finite Repetition, Greediness
Character classes
Grouping and Backreferences
Dot Matches (Almost) Any Character
Here is a solution that is adapted from the answer to a recent question:
class String
def in_groups_of(n, sep = ' ')
chars.each_slice(n).map(&:join).join(sep)
end
end
p 'HelloWorld-Hello guys'.in_groups_of(5,'<wbr>')
# "Hello<wbr>World<wbr>-Hell<wbr>o guy<wbr>s"
The result differs from your example in that the space counts as a character, leaving the final s in a group of its own. Was your example flawed, or do you mean to exclude spaces (whitespace in general?) from the character count?
To only count non-whitespace (“sticking” trailing whitespace to the last non-whitespace, leaving whitespace-only strings alone):
# count "hard coded" into regexp
s.scan(/(?:\s*\S(?:\s+\z)?){1,5}|\s+\z/).join('<wbr>')
# parametric count
s.scan(/\s*\S(?:\s+\z)?|\s+\z/).each_slice(5).map(&:join).join('<wbr>')