gsub not working throughout code snippet - ruby

Using this code example
#!/usr/bin/ruby
paragraph = "champion xylophone excellent"
paragraph = paragraph.gsub("ch","tj")
words = paragraph.split(/ /)
words.each do |word|
if word[0,1] == "x"
word[0.1] = "z"
end
end
paragraph = words.join(" ")
paragraph.gsub("x","ks")
print paragraph
The output will be 'tjampion zylophone excellent' rather than 'tjampion zylophone ekscellent'
The same applies if the gsub is applied within the each to the individual words. I don't understand why it acts at the beginning but not at the end.
Edit
Second case is a distinct issue from the first:
#!/usr/bin/ruby
paragraph = "champion xylophone excellent"
paragraph = paragraph.gsub("ch","tj")
words = paragraph.split(/ /)
words.each do |word|
if word[0,1] == "x"
word[0.1] = "z"
end
word = word.gsub("x","ks")
end
paragraph = words.join(" ")
print paragraph

When you first use gsub you are assigning it to paragrah
paragraph = paragraph.gsub("ch","tj")
The second time you are missing the assignment
change paragraph.gsub("x","ks") to
paragraph = paragraph.gsub("x","ks")

Your code is working by accident. The working parts use methods on strings that modify the string; the not working parts use methods that produce a new string (which is discarded). This is confusing; a better way would be to use map if the desired result is an array. It would contain the results of the block, either modified strings or new ones.
paragraph = "champion xylophone excellent"
words = paragraph.split(' ').map do |word|
word.gsub('ch','tj') #new string
word[0.1] = "z" if word.start_with?('x') #modified string
word.gsub!('x','ks') #modified string
end
puts words.join(' ')

paragraph.gsub!("x","ks")
puts paragraph
Or use RegExp (one line operation can do all):
paragraph = "champion xylophone excellent"
paragraph = paragraph.gsub("ch","tj").gsub(/([\A\s])x(\w*)/){$1 + 'z'+ $2}.gsub("x","ks")
puts paragraph

If you want your gsub to be destructive, i.e. to change the value of the variable on which it was called, use gsub!. so:
paragraph.gsub!('ch', 'tj')
rather than:
paragraph = paragraph.gsub('ch', 'tj')
It's more concise, and Ruby developers recognize bang (!) methods as destructive. And in your case, you need the gsub! method in place of both calls to gsub

Related

Replace specified phrase with * within text

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 *.

Taking a string and returning it with vowels removed

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

Setting variables in while loops (Ruby)

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

counting number of replacements done by gsub on an object of class Nokogiri::XML::Text

I was trying to replace a given pattern with some string in a object which is of class Nokogiri::XML::Text using gsub in ruby..see the below command
#str is of class Nokogiri::XML::Text
str.content = str.content.gsub(pattern,replacing_word)
Now I wanted to print something with each replacement and also wanted to know the number of replacement that gsub did so I wrote the below command
count = 0
str.content = str.content.gsub(pattern,replacing_word) { count += 1
puts "some text"}
The above command is replacing the given pattern with the replacing_string but the body part of gsub is not getting executed, Neither any print statement nor any increment operation on count is happening.
Even I tried with just puts statement in the body then also it is not printing, although this gsub is doing many replacements in "str"
Let me know if anyone knows what is the issue with this gsub command
try the following code snippet instead of yours,
content = content.gsub(pattern) {|m| count +=1; m.replace(replacing_word)}
My Testing Code
#!/usr/bin/env ruby
pattern = "a";
content = "abaccaa"
replacing_word = "z"
count = 0
content = content.gsub(pattern) {|m| count +=1; m.replace(replacing_word)}
puts content;
puts count;
Output
zbzcczz
4
--SJ

Randomly replace letters in word

I tried to write a function which will be able to randomly change letters in word except first and last one.
def fun(string)
z=0
s=string.size
tab=string
a=(1...s-1).to_a.sample s-1
for i in 1...(s-1)
puts tab[i].replace(string[a[z]])
z=z+1
end
puts tab
end
fun("sample")
My output is:
p
l
a
m
sample
Anybody know how to make it my tab be correct?
it seems to change in for block, because in output was 'plamp' so it's random as I wanted but if I want to print the whole word (splampe) it doesn't working. :(
What about:
def fun(string)
first, *middle, last = string.chars
[first, middle.shuffle, last].join
end
fun("sample") #=> "smalpe"
s = 'sample'
[s[0], s[1..-2].chars.shuffle, s[-1]].join
# => "slpmae"
Here is my solution:
def fun(string)
first = string[0]
last = string[-1]
middle = string[1..-2]
puts "#{first}#{middle.split('').shuffle.join}#{last}"
end
fun('sample')
there are some problems with your function. First, when you say tab=string, tab is now a reference to string, so, when you change characters on tab you change the string characters too. I think that for clarity is better to keep the index of sample (1....n)to reference the position in the original array.
I suggest the usage of tab as a new array.
def fun(string)
if string.length <= 2
return
z=1
s=string.size
tab = []
tab[0] = string[0]
a=(1...s-1).to_a.sample(s-1)
(1...s-1).to_a.each do |i|
tab[z] = string[a[i - 1]]
z=z+1
end
tab.push string[string.size-1]
tab.join('')
end
fun("sample")
=> "spalme"
Another way, using String#gsub with a block:
def inner_jumble(str)
str.sub(/(?<=\w)\w{2,}(?=\w)/) { |s| s.chars.shuffle.join }
end
inner_jumble("pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis") # *
#=> "poovcanaiimsllinoonroinuicclprsciscuoooomtces"
inner_jumble("what ho, fellow coders?")
#=> "waht ho, folelw coedrs?"
(?<=\w) is a ("zero-width") positive look-behind that requires the match to immediately follow a word character.
(?=\w) is a ("zero-width") positive look-ahead that requires the match to be followed immediately by a word character.
You could use \w\w+ in place of \w{2,} for matching two or more consecutive word characters.
If you only want it to apply to individual words, you can use gsub or sub.
*A lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust, supposedly the longest word in some English dictionaries.

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