ruby - reading string into array/subarray - ruby

I am looking for a good way to convert string like:
"[apples, oranges, [strawberries, peas, grapes]]"
into an array which will look like:
array = [apples, oranges, [strawberries, peas, grapes]].
therefore array[0] = ["apples"], array[1] = ["oranges"], and array[2] = ["strawberries", "peas", "grapes"]
So, whenever in my string I have another inner square brackets, the content between brackets will be a subarray of my base array.

eval s.gsub /\w+/, '"\&"'
or, for an alternative result that might be useful...
eval s.gsub /\w+/, ':\&'
Now, these are vulnerable to code injection exploits if you are not in full control of the input, so you could install a JSON gem and do something like this:
require 'json'
JSON.parse s.gsub /\w+/, '"\&"'

You can use gsub to wrap the words in quotes and then eval the string:
eval str.gsub(/\w+/) { |match| "'#{match}'" }
This assumes that your words are words in the sense of a regex: alphanumeric. Further, this is quick-and-dirty, and I don't recommend using eval if it can be avoided (by, for example, having your input be in a parseable serialization language) as it can be a security risk.

Hm, if your strings would be surrounded by "" it would be easier, than you could just use a JSON parser ;-). But for this you would have to write your own parser. There are different parser generator gems for ruby. E.g.
Parslet: http://kschiess.github.com/parslet/
Treetop: http://treetop.rubyforge.org/

Related

Replace characters from string Ruby

I have the following string which has an array element in it and I will like to remove the quotes in the array element to the outside of the array:
"date":"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":["12","14","45"],"status":"completed"
Is there a way to remove the double quotes in [] and add double quotes to the start and end of []? Results:
"date":"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":"[12,14,45]","status":"completed"
Can that be done in ruby or is there a command line that I can use?
Your string looks like a json hash to me:
json = '{"date":"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":["12","14","45"],"status":"completed"}'
require 'json'
hash = JSON.load(json)
hash.update('products' => hash['products'].map(&:to_i))
puts hash.to_json
# => {"date":"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":[12,14,45],"status":"completed"}
Or if you really want to have the array represented as a string (what is not json anymore):
hash.update('products' => hash['products'].map(&:to_i).to_s) # note .to_s here
puts hash.to_json
# => {"date":"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":"[12,14,45]","status":"completed"}
The answer by #spickermann is pretty good, and the best way I can think of, but since I had fun trying to find an alternative without using json, here it goes:
def string_to_result(str)
str.match(/(?:\[)((?:")+(.)+(?:")+)+(?:\])/)
str.gsub($1, "#{$1.split(',').map{ |num| num.gsub('"', '') }.join(',')}").gsub(/\[/, '"[').gsub(/\]/, ']"').gsub(/String/, 'Results')
end
Is ugly as hell, but it works :P
I tried to do it on a single step, but that was way harder for my regexp skills.
Anyway, you should never parse something structured such as json or xml using only regexps, and this is merely for fun.
[EDIT] Had the bracket adjacent quotes wrong,sorry. Fixed.
Also, one more thing, this fails A LOT! An empty array or an array in other place in the string are just a few cases where it would fail.
You could use the form of String#gsub that takes a block:
str = '"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":["12","14","45"],"status":"completed"'
puts str.gsub(/\["(\d+)","(\d+)","(\d+)"\]/) { "\"[#{$1},#{$2},#{$3}]\"" }
#"2014-05-04","name":"John","products":"[12,14,45]","status":"completed"

Generate string for Regex pattern in Ruby

In Python language I find rstr that can generate a string for a regex pattern.
Or in Python we have this method that can return range of string:
re.sre_parse.parse(pattern)
#..... ('range', (97, 122)) ....
But In Ruby I didn't find any thing.
So how to generate string for a regex pattern in Ruby(reverse regex)?
I wanna to some thing like this:
"/[a-z0-9]+/".example
#tvvd
"/[a-z0-9]+/".example
#yt
"/[a-z0-9]+/".example
#bgdf6
"/[a-z0-9]+/".example
#564fb
"/[a-z0-9]+/" is my input.
The outputs must be correct string that available in my regex pattern.
Here outputs were: tvvd , yt , bgdf6 , 564fb that "example" method generated them.
I need that method.
Thanks for your advice.
You can also use the Faker gem https://github.com/stympy/faker and then use this call:
Faker::Base.regexify(/[a-z0-9]{10}/)
In Ruby:
/qweqwe/.to_s
# => "(?-mix:qweqwe)"
When you declare a Regexp, you've got the Regexp class object, to convert it to String class object, you may use Regexp's method #to_s. During conversion the special fields will be expanded, as you may see in the example., using:
(using the (?opts:source) notation. This string can be fed back in to Regexp::new to a regular expression with the same semantics as the original.
Also, you can use Regexp's method #inspect, which:
produces a generally more readable version of rxp.
/ab+c/ix.inspect #=> "/ab+c/ix"
Note: that the above methods are only use for plain conversion Regexp into String, and in order to match or select set of string onto an other one, we use other methods. For example, if you have a sourse array (or string, which you wish to split with #split method), you can grep it, and get result array:
array = "test,ab,yr,OO".split( ',' )
# => ['test', 'ab', 'yr', 'OO']
array = array.grep /[a-z]/
# => ["test", "ab", "yr"]
And then convert the array into string as:
array.join(',')
# => "test,ab,yr"
Or just use #scan method, with slightly changed regexp:
"test,ab,yr,OO".scan( /[a-z]+/ )
# => ["test", "ab", "yr"]
However, if you really need a random string matched the regexp, you have to write your own method, please refer to the post, or use ruby-string-random library. The library:
generates a random string based on Regexp syntax or Patterns.
And the code will be like to the following:
pattern = '[aw-zX][123]'
result = StringRandom.random_regex(pattern)
A bit late to the party, but - originally inspired by this stackoverflow thread - I have created a powerful ruby gem which solves the original problem:
https://github.com/tom-lord/regexp-examples
/this|is|awesome/.examples #=> ['this', 'is', 'awesome']
/https?:\/\/(www\.)?github\.com/.examples #=> ['http://github.com', 'http://www.github.com', 'https://github.com', 'https://www.github.com']
UPDATE: Now regular expressions supported in string_pattern gem and it is 30 times faster than other gems
require 'string_pattern'
/[a-z0-9]+/.generate
To see a comparison of speed https://repl.it/#tcblues/Comparison-generating-random-string-from-regular-expression
I created a simple way to generate strings using a pattern without the mess of regular expressions, take a look at the string_pattern gem project: https://github.com/MarioRuiz/string_pattern
To install it: gem install string_pattern
This is an example of use:
# four characters. optional: capitals and numbers, required: lower
"4:XN/x/".gen # aaaa, FF9b, j4em, asdf, ADFt
Maybe you can find what you are looking for over here.

How to change case of letters in string using RegEx in Ruby

Say I have a string : "hEY "
I want to convert it to "Hey "
string.gsub!(/([a-z])([A-Z]+ )/, '\1'.upcase)
That is the idea I have, but it seems like the upcase method does nothing when I use it within the gsub method. Why is that?
EDIT: I came up with this method:
string.gsub!(/([a-z])([A-Z]+ )/) { |str| str.downcase!.capitalize! }
Is there a way to do this within the regex though? I don't really understand the '\1' '\2' thing. Is that backreferencing? How does that work
#sawa Has the simple answer, and you've edited your question with another mechanism. However, to answer two of your questions:
Is there a way to do this within the regex though?
No, Ruby's regex does not support a case-changing feature as some other regex flavors do. You can "prove" this to yourself by reviewing the official Ruby regex docs for 1.9 and 2.0 and searching for the word "case":
https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/ruby_1_9_3/doc/re.rdoc
https://github.com/ruby/ruby/blob/ruby_2_0_0/doc/re.rdoc
I don't really understand the '\1' '\2' thing. Is that backreferencing? How does that work?
Your use of \1 is a kind of backreference. A backreference can be when you use \1 and such in the search pattern. For example, the regular expression /f(.)\1/ will find the letter f, followed by any character, followed by that same character (e.g. "foo" or "f!!").
In this case, within a replacement string passed to a method like String#gsub, the backreference does refer to the previous capture. From the docs:
"If replacement is a String it will be substituted for the matched text. It may contain back-references to the pattern’s capture groups of the form \d, where d is a group number, or \k<n>, where n is a group name. If it is a double-quoted string, both back-references must be preceded by an additional backslash."
In practice, this means:
"hello world".gsub( /([aeiou])/, '_\1_' ) #=> "h_e_ll_o_ w_o_rld"
"hello world".gsub( /([aeiou])/, "_\1_" ) #=> "h_\u0001_ll_\u0001_ w_\u0001_rld"
"hello world".gsub( /([aeiou])/, "_\\1_" ) #=> "h_e_ll_o_ w_o_rld"
Now, you have to understand when code runs. In your original code…
string.gsub!(/([a-z])([A-Z]+ )/, '\1'.upcase)
…what you are doing is calling upcase on the string '\1' (which has no effect) and then calling the gsub! method, passing in a regex and a string as parameters.
Finally, another way to achieve this same goal is with the block form like so:
# Take your pick of which you prefer:
string.gsub!(/([a-z])([A-Z]+ )/){ $1.upcase << $2.downcase }
string.gsub!(/([a-z])([A-Z]+ )/){ [$1.upcase,$2.downcase].join }
string.gsub!(/([a-z])([A-Z]+ )/){ "#{$1.upcase}#{$2.downcase}" }
In the block form of gsub the captured patterns are set to the global variables $1, $2, etc. and you can use those to construct the replacement string.
I don't know why you are trying to do it in a complicated way, but the usual way is:
"hEY".capitalize # => "Hey"
If you insist in using a regex and upcase, then you would also need downcase:
"hEY".downcase.sub(/\w/){$&.upcase} # => "Hey"
If you really want to just swap the case of every letter in the string, you can avoid the complexity of regex entirely because There's A Method For That™.
"hEY".swapcase # => "Hey"
"HellO thERe".swapcase # => "hELLo THerE"
There's also swapcase! to do it destructively.

Ruby remove everything except some characters?

How can I remove from a string all characters except white spaces, numbers, and some others?
Something like this:
oneLine.gsub(/[^ULDR0-9\<\>\s]/i,'')
I need only: 0-9 l d u r < > <space>
Also, is there a good document about the use of regex in Ruby, like a list of special characters with examples?
The regex you have is already working correctly. However, you do need to assign the result back to the string you're operating on. Otherwise, you're not changing the string (.gsub() does not modify the string in-place).
You can improve the regex a bit by adding a '+' quantifier (so consecutive characters can be replaced in one go). Also, you don't need to escape angle brackets:
oneLine = oneLine.gsub(/[^ULDR0-9<>\s]+/i, '')
A good resource with special consideration of Ruby regexes is the Regular Expressions Cookbook by Jan Goyvaerts and Steven Levithan. A good online tutorial by the same author is here.
Good old String#delete does this without a regular expression. The ^ means 'NOT'.
str = "12eldabc8urp pp"
p str.delete('^0-9ldur<> ') #=> "12ld8ur "
Just for completeness: you don't need a regular expression for this particular task, this can be done using simple string manipulation:
irb(main):005:0> "asdasd123".tr('^ULDRuldr0-9<>\t\r\n ', '')
=> "dd123"
There's also the tr! method if you want to replace the old value:
irb(main):009:0> oneLine = 'UasdL asd 123'
irb(main):010:0> oneLine.tr!('^ULDRuldr0-9<>\t\r\n ', '')
irb(main):011:0> oneLine
=> "UdL d 123"
This should be a bit faster as well (but performance shouldn't be a big concern in Ruby :)

English Sentence to Camel-cased method name

I had to convert a series of sentences into camel-cased method names. I ended writing something for it. I am still curious if there's something simpler for it.
Given the string a = "This is a test." output thisIsATest
I used for following:
a.downcase.gsub(/\s\w/){|b| b[-1,1].upcase }
Not sure it's better as your solution but it should do the trick:
>> "This is a test.".titleize.split(" ").join.camelize(:lower)
=> "thisIsATest."
titleize: uppercase every first letter of each word
split(" ").join: create an array with each word and join to squeeze the spaces out
camelize(:lower): make the first letter lowercase
You can find some more fun functions in the Rails docs: http://api.rubyonrails.org/classes/ActiveSupport/CoreExtensions/String/Inflections.html
"active_record".camelize(:lower)
output : "activeRecord"
use these
"Some string for you".gsub(/\s+/,'_').camelize(:lower) #=> "someStringForYou"
gsub: Replace spaces by underscores
camelize: java-like method camelcase
You might try using the 'English' gem, available at http://english.rubyforge.org/
require 'english/case'
a = "This is a test."
a.camelcase().uncapitalize() # => 'thisIsATest

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