Substituting the value of variable inside backtick operator - ruby

How can I substitute the value of a variable inside the backtick operator?
script_dir = File.expand_path File.dirname(__FILE__)
p `ruby -e p "$script_dir"` # this does not work

In Ruby, unlike Perl, the dollar sign indicates a global variable, not a plain regular variable to expand in a string. In a string, you need to use the #{} construct:
p `ruby -e "p #{script_dir}"`
An example:
irb(main):011:0> str = '\'howdy\''
=> "'howdy'"
irb(main):012:0> `ruby -e "p #{str}"`
=> "\"howdy\"\n"

Ruby string interpolation works with backtick operator:
p `ruby -e p "#{script_dir}"`

Related

How can I get a Ruby variable from a line read from a file?

I need to reuse a textfile that is filled with one-liners such:
export NODE_CODE="mio12"
How can I do that in my Ruby program the var is created and assign as it is in the text file?
If the file were a Ruby file, you could require it and be able to access the variables after that:
# variables.rb
VAR1 = "variable 1"
VAR2 = 2
# ruby.rb
require "variables"
puts VAR1
If you're not so lucky, you could read the file and then loop through the lines, looking for lines that match your criteria (Rubular is great here) and making use of Ruby's instance_variable_set method. The gsub is to deal with extra quotes when the matcher grabs a variable set as a string.
# variables.txt
export VAR1="variable 1"
export VAR2=2
# ruby.rb
variable_line = Regexp.new('export\s(\w*)=(.*)')
File.readlines("variables.txt").each do |line|
if match = variable_line.match(line)
instance_variable_set("##{match[1].downcase}", match[2].gsub("\"", ""))
end
end
puts #var1
puts #var2
Creating a hash from this file can be a fairly simple thing.
For var.txt:
export BLAH=42
export WOOBLE=67
File.readlines("var.txt").each_with_object({}) { |line, h|
h[$1] = $2 if line =~ /^ export \s+ (.+?) \s* \= \s* (.+) $/x
}
# => {"BLAH"=>"42", "WOOBLE"=>"67"}

Replacing escape quotes with just quotes in a string

So I'm having an issue replacing \" in a string.
My Objective:
Given a string, if there's an escaped quote in the string, replace it with just a quote
So for example:
"hello\"74" would be "hello"74"
simp"\"sons would be simp"sons
jump98" would be jump98"
I'm currently trying this: but obviously that doesn't work and messes everything up, any assistance would be awesome
str.replace "\\"", "\""
I guess you are being mistaken by how \ works. You can never define a string as
a = "hello"74"
Also escape character is used only while defining the variable its not part of the value. Eg:
a = "hello\"74"
# => "hello\"74"
puts a
# hello"74
However in-case my above assumption is incorrect following example should help you:
a = 'hello\"74'
# => "hello\\\"74"
puts a
# hello\"74
a.gsub!("\\","")
# => "hello\"74"
puts a
# hello"74
EDIT
The above gsub will replace all instances of \ however OP needs only to replace '" with ". Following should do the trick:
a.gsub!("\\\"","\"")
# => "hello\"74"
puts a
# hello"74
You can use gsub:
word = 'simp"\"sons';
print word.gsub(/\\"/, '"');
//=> simp""sons
I'm currently trying str.replace "\\"", "\"" but obviously that doesn't work and messes everything up, any assistance would be awesome
str.replace "\\"", "\"" doesn't work for two reasons:
It's the wrong method. String#replace replaces the entire string, you are looking for String#gsub.
"\\"" is incorrect: " starts the string, \\ is a backslash (correctly escaped) and " ends the string. The last " starts a new string.
You have to either escape the double quote:
puts "\\\"" #=> \"
Or use single quotes:
puts '\\"' #=> \"
Example:
content = <<-EOF
"hello\"74"
simp"\"sons
jump98"
EOF
puts content.gsub('\\"', '"')
Output:
"hello"74"
simp""sons
jump98"

Ruby: escape escape sequence?

There is a string:
str = "foo\nbar"
How can I escape it to:
'foo\nbar'
?
I noticed "#{str}" doesn't work.
str.inspect Should do it for you
Add another \:
"foo\\nbar" == 'foo\nbar' #=> true
Single-quoted strings do not have interpolation, so #{str} does nothing special in them.

Ruby gsub doesn't escape single-quotes

I don't understand what is going on here. How should I feed gsub to get the string "Yaho\'o"?
>> "Yaho'o".gsub("Y", "\\Y")
=> "\\Yaho'o"
>> "Yaho'o".gsub("'", "\\'")
=> "Yahooo"
\' means $' which is everything after the match.
Escape the \ again and it works
"Yaho'o".gsub("'", "\\\\'")
"Yaho'o".gsub("'", "\\\\'")
Because you're escaping the escape character as well as escaping the single quote.
This will also do it, and it's a bit more readable:
def escape_single_quotes(str)
str.gsub(/'/) { |x| "\\#{x}" }
end
If you want to escape both a single-quote and a backslash, so that you can embed that string in a double-quoted ruby string, then the following will do that for you:
def escape_single_quotes_and_backslash(str)
str.gsub(/\\|'/) { |x| "\\#{x}" }
end

How to add a single backslash character to a string in Ruby?

I want to insert backslash before apostrophe in "children's world" string. Is there a easy way to do it?
irb(main):035:0> s = "children's world"
=> "children's world"
irb(main):036:0> s.gsub('\'', '\\\'')
=> "childrens worlds world"
Answer
You need some extra backslashes:
>> puts "children's world".gsub("'", '\\\\\'')
children\'s world
or slightly more concisely (since you don't need to escape the ' in a double-quoted string):
>> puts "children's world".gsub("'", "\\\\'")
children\'s world
or even more concisely:
>> puts "children's world".gsub("'") { "\\'" }
children\'s world
Explanation
Your '\\\'' generates \' as a string:
>> puts '\\\''
\'
and \' is a special replacement pattern in Ruby. From ruby-doc.org:
you may refer to some special match variables using these combinations ... \' corresponds to $', which contains string after match
So the \' that gsub sees in the second argument is being interpreted as a special pattern (everything in the original string after the match) instead of as a literal \'.
So what you want gsub to see is actually \\', which can be produced by '\\\\\'' or "\\\\'".
Or, if you use the block form of gsub (gsub("xxx") { "yyy" }) then Ruby takes the replacement string "yyy" literally without trying to apply replacement patterns.
Note: If you have to create a replacement string with a lot of \s you could take advantage of the fact that when you use /.../ (or %r{...}) you don't have to double-escape the backslashes:
>> puts "children's world".gsub("'", /\\'/.source)
children\'s world
Or you could use a single-quoted heredoc: (using <<'STR' instead of just <<STR)
>> puts "children's world".gsub("'", <<'STR'.strip)
\\'
STR
children\'s world
>> puts s.gsub("'", "\\\\'")
children\'s world
Your problem is that the string "\'" is meaningful to gsub in a replacement string. In order to make it work the way you want, you have to use the block form.
s.gsub("'") {"\\'"}

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