How can I escape a Ruby symbol with quotes only if needed? - ruby

IRB and Rails console both have a nice way of outputting symbols that only quote-escapes them when necessary. Some examples:
1.9.3p194 :001 > "#test".to_sym
=> :#test
1.9.3p194 :002 > "#Test".to_sym
=> :#Test
1.9.3p194 :003 > "#123".to_sym
=> :"#123"
1.9.3p194 :004 > "##_test".to_sym
=> :##_test
1.9.3p194 :005 > "test?".to_sym
=> :test?
1.9.3p194 :006 > "test!".to_sym
=> :test!
1.9.3p194 :007 > "_test!".to_sym
=> :_test!
1.9.3p194 :008 > "_test?".to_sym
=> :_test?
1.9.3p194 :009 > "A!".to_sym
=> :"A!"
1.9.3p194 :010 > "#a!".to_sym
=> :"#a!"
How would you do this yourself, so that you could do:
puts "This is valid code: #{escape_symbol(some_symbol)}"

The easiest and best way to do this is via Symbol's inspect method:
1.9.3p194 :013 > puts "This is valid code: #{"#a!".to_sym.inspect}"
This is valid code: :"#a!"
=> nil
1.9.3p194 :014 > puts "This is valid code: #{"a!".to_sym.inspect}"
This is valid code: :a!
You could look at the sym_inspect(VALUE sym) method in string.c in Ruby 1.9.3 that does that, if you're curious.
So, even though you don't need another method to call inspect, this would be the simplest implementation:
def escape_symbol(sym)
sym.inspect
end
Here's my attempt at implementing with a few regexs, although I'd suggest using inspect instead if you can:
def escape_symbol(sym)
sym =~ /^[#a-zA-Z_]#?[a-zA-Z_0-9]*$/ || sym =~ /^[a-z_][a-zA-Z_0-9]*[?!]?$/ ? ":#{sym}" : ":\"#{sym.gsub(/"/, '\\"')}\""
end

Related

what is [-1, 1] in this ruby code?

I am looking at an example of code and confused.
def self.type(input)
input.strip!
return 'question' if input[-1,1] == '?'
end
So, input[-1] makes sense, it is checking if the last character is a question mark. What does the 1 do? Also, all the example tests pass without the 1.
input[-1,1] means reading 1 character from the last character. It gives the same result as input[-1] because you are reading just 1 character from the last character.
Look at some examples to understand more:
❯ irb
2.3.0 :001 > input = 'lenin'
=> "lenin"
2.3.0 :002 > input[-1]
=> "n"
2.3.0 :003 > input[-1,1]
=> "n"
2.3.0 :004 > input[-2]
=> "i"
2.3.0 :005 > input[-2, 1]
=> "i"
2.3.0 :006 > input[-2, 2]
=> "in"
2.3.0 :007 > input[-2, 3]
=> "in"

Print memory address for Ruby array

irb> class A; end
=> nil
irb> a=A.new
=> "#<A:0x3094638>"
irb> a.inspect
=> "#<A:0x3094638>"
irb> b=[]
=> []
irb> b.inspect
=> "[]"
How to get memory address of an array object?
Use the method Object#object_id.
Returns an integer identifier for obj. The same number will be returned on all calls to id for a given object, and no two active objects will share an id. #object_id is a different concept from the :name notation, which returns the symbol id of name.
Example :-
Arup-iMac:arup_ruby $ irb
2.1.2 :001 > s = "I am a string"
=> "I am a string"
2.1.2 :002 > obj_id = s.object_id
=> 2156122060
2.1.2 :003 > ObjectSpace._id2ref obj_id
=> "I am a string"
2.1.2 :004 >

How do I access a value from a JSON string?

I have a variable. When I do puts var_name I get this hash:
"{\"numConnections\": 163}"
But when I try to get that number 163 from the value numConnections it isn't working. Here is what I am trying:
connections = temp_var["\"numConnections\""]
puts connections.inspect
or:
connections = temp_var["numConnections"]
puts connections.inspect
both of which equally don't work.
Any idea how to extract that 163 from there?
If you have a JSON string, you need to parse it into a hash before you can use it to access its keys and values in a hash-like way. Consider this IRB session:
1.9.3p194 :001 > require 'json'
=> true
1.9.3p194 :002 > temp_var = "{\"numConnections\": 163}"
=> "{"numConnections": 163}"
1.9.3p194 :003 > temp_var.class
=> String
1.9.3p194 :004 > JSON.parse(temp_var)
=> {"numConnections"=>163}
1.9.3p194 :005 > JSON.parse(temp_var)['numConnections']
=> 163

Ruby Symbol#to_proc leaks references in 1.9.2-p180?

Ok, this is my second attempt at debugging the memory issues with my Sinatra app. I believe I have it nailed down into simple sample code this time.
It seems when I filter an array through .map(&:some_method), it causes the items in that array to not get garbage collected. Running the equivalent .map{|x| x.some_method} is totally fine.
Demonstration: Given a simple sample class:
class C
def foo
"foo"
end
end
If I run the following in IRB, it gets collected normally:
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :001 > a = 10.times.map{C.new}
=> [...]
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :002 > b = a.map{|x| x.foo}
=> ["foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo"]
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :003 > ObjectSpace.each_object(C){}
=> 10
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :004 > a = nil
=> nil
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :005 > b = nil
=> nil
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :006 > GC.start
=> nil
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :007 > ObjectSpace.each_object(C){}
=> 0
So no references to C exist anymore. Good. But substituting map{|x| x.foo} with map(&:foo) (which is advertised as equivalent), it doesn't get collected:
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :001 > a = 10.times.map{C.new}
=> [...]
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :002 > b = a.map(&:foo)
=> ["foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo"]
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :003 > ObjectSpace.each_object(C){}
=> 10
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :004 > a = nil
=> nil
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :005 > b = nil
=> nil
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :006 > GC.start
=> nil
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :007 > ObjectSpace.each_object(C){}
=> 10
ruby-1.9.2-p180 :008 >
Is this a ruby bug? I'll try in more versions of ruby to be sure but this seems like an obvious issue. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?
Edit:
I've tried this in 1.8.7-p352 and it doesn't have the issue. 1.9.3-preview1 does however still have the issue. Is a bug report in order or am I doing something wrong?
Edit2: formatting (why does putting four spaces before each line produce syntax highlighting while <pre> tags don't?)
As a.map(&:foo) should be the exact equivalent to a.map{|x| x.foo}, it seems like you really hit a bug in the Ruby code here. It cannot hurt to file a bug report on (http://redmine.ruby-lang.org/), the worst that can happen is that its being ignored. You can decrease the chances of that by providing a patch for the issue.
EDIT: I threw on my IRB and tried your code. I can reproduce the issue you describe on ruby 1.9.2p290 (2011-07-09 revision 32553) [x86_64-linux]. However, explicitely calling to_proc on the symbol does not suffer from the same problem:
irb(main):001:0> class C; def foo; end; end
=> nil
irb(main):002:0> a = 10.times.map { C.new }
=> [...]
irb(main):004:0> b = a.map(&:foo.to_proc)
=> [nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil, nil]
irb(main):005:0> ObjectSpace.each_object(C){}
=> 10
irb(main):006:0> a = b = nil
=> nil
irb(main):007:0> GC.start
=> nil
irb(main):008:0> ObjectSpace.each_object(C){}
=> 0
It seems we are facing an issue with the implicit Symbol -> Proc conversion here. Maybe I will try to dive a bit into the Ruby source later. If so, I will keep you updated.
EDIT 2:
Simple workaround for the problem:
class Symbol
def to_proc
lambda { |x| x.send(self) }
end
end
class C
def foo; "foo"; end
end
a = 10.times.map { C.new }
b = a.map(&:foo)
p b
a = b = nil
GC.start
p ObjectSpace.each_object(C) {}
prints 0.

Why is String#index returning nil here?

On the last two lines:
$ ruby -v
ruby 1.9.1p378 (2010-01-10 revision 26273) [i386-darwin10]
$ irb
irb(main):001:0> def t(str)
irb(main):002:1> str.index str
irb(main):003:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):004:0> t 'abc'
=> 0
irb(main):005:0> t "\x01\x11\xfe"
=> nil
irb(main):006:0> t "\x01\x11\xfe".force_encoding(Encoding::UTF_8)
=> nil
Why does str.index str return nil?
"\x01\x11\xfe" is not valid UTF8.
If you call t "\x01\x11\xfe".force_encoding(Encoding::BINARY), you'll get the expected 0.
The behavior is different on my older Ruby:
$ ruby -v ; irb
ruby 1.8.7 (2010-01-10 patchlevel 249) [x86_64-linux]
irb(main):001:0> def t(str)
irb(main):002:1> str.index str
irb(main):003:1> end
=> nil
irb(main):004:0> t 'abc'
=> 0
irb(main):005:0> t "\x01\x11\xfe"
=> 0
I suspect it has something to do with the difference between single-quotes and double-quotes with string literals in ruby:
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > def t(str) ; str.index(str) ; end
=> nil
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > t 'abc'
=> 0
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > t "\x01\x11\xfe"
=> nil
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > t '\x01\x11\xfe'
=> 0
The short answer is that using single-quotes does minimal text processing, but double-quotes allows interpolation, character escaping, and a few other things.
Some examples:
#interpolation
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > x = 5 ; 'number: #{x}'
=> "number: \#{x}"
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > x = 5 ; "number: #{x}"
=> "number: 5"
#character escaping
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > puts 'tab\tseparated'
tab\tseparated
=> nil
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > puts "tab\tseparated"
tab separated
=> nil
#hex characters
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > puts '\x01\x11\xfe'
\x01\x11\xfe
=> nil
ruby-1.9.1-p378 > puts "\x01\x11\xfe"
�
=> nil
I'm sure someone can explain better why this happens, this is just what I've experienced in my rubying.

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