I like this literal expression for an array of strings:
%w( i can easily create arrays of words )
I am wondering if there is a literal to get an array of symbols. I know I can do
%w( it is less elegant to create arrays of symbols ).map( &:to_sym )
but it would be so wonderful just to use a literal.
Yes! This is possible now in Ruby 2.0.0. One way to write it is:
%i{foo bar} # => [:foo, :bar]
You can also use other delimiters, so you could also write %i(foo bar) or %i!foo bar! for example.
This feature was originally announced here:
http://www.ruby-lang.org/zh_TW/news/2012/11/02/ruby-2-0-0-preview1-released/
It is mentioned in the official documentation of Ruby here:
http://ruby-doc.org/core/doc/syntax/literals_rdoc.html#label-Percent+Strings
In Ruby 1.x, unfortunately the list of available %-delimiters is limited
Modifier Meaning
%q[ ] Non-interpolated String (except for \\ \[ and \])
%Q[ ] Interpolated String (default)
%r[ ] Interpolated Regexp (flags can appear after the closing delimiter)
%s[ ] Non-interpolated Symbol
%w[ ] Non-interpolated Array of words, separated by whitespace
%W[ ] Interpolated Array of words, separated by whitespace
%x[ ] Interpolated shell command
Related
I want to create regular expression to match ruby symbols, but I need to know what the exact syntax for a symbol is.
Until now I am aware of the following:
:'string'
:"string"
:__underline
:method
:exclamation!
:question?
:#instance
:$global
It's not entirely clear what you are talking about.
If you are talking about what a Symbol can contain, the answer is: anything and everything, including newlines, arbitrary whitespace, control characters, arbitrarily weird and obscure Unicode characters, and everything else.
If you are talking about the various ways of writing Symbol literals, here's my best understanding:
bare : literal: any valid Ruby identifier (e.g. :foo, :Foo, :#foo, :##foo, :$foo, :$:, …)
single-quoted : literal: everything that's valid in a single-quoted String literal, including escape sequences such as :'\'' and :'\\'
double-quoted : literal: everything that's valid in a double-quoted String literal, including escape sequences such as :"\"", :"\\", and :"\n", as well as string interpolation, which allows you to inject the results of arbitrary Ruby code into the Symbol, e.g. :"#{if rand < 0.5 then RUBY_VERSION else ENV['HOME'] end}"
single-quoted Array of Symbols literal: everything that's valid in a single-quoted Array of Strings literal, e.g. %i|foo bar baz| (equivalent to [:foo, :bar, :baz]), %i(foo\ bar baz) (equivalent to [:'foo bar', :baz]), %i:foo bar: (equivalent to [:foo, :bar])
double-quoted Array of Symbols literal: everything that's valid in a double-quoted Array of Strings literal, e.g. %I|foo #{bar} baz|, etc.
Symbol hash keys in the key: value syntax: every valid Ruby label, e.g. {foo: 42}
Symbol hash keys in the quoted 'key': value syntax: every valid Ruby String literal, including escape sequences and interpolation, e.g. {"foo\n#{bar}": 42}
There are of course a lot of other expressions that evaluate to Symbols:
method definition expressions: def foo;end # => :foo
String#to_sym (alias String#intern): 'foo bar'.to_sym # => :'foo bar'
really, any method that may return a Symbol
http://www.cse.buffalo.edu/~regan/cse305/RubyBNF.pdf enumerates the context-free grammar productions that define Ruby's syntax. CFGs are inherently more powerful than REs, so you might want to consider a different tool for this job--but you can certainly look at this document and try to construct a regexp that matches all cases.
The following two statements will generate the same result:
arr = %w(abc def ghi jkl)
and
arr = ["abc", "def", "ghi", "jkl"]
In which cases should %w be used?
In the case above, I want an array ["abc", "def", "ghi", "jkl"]. Which is the ideal way: the former (with %w) or the later?
When to use %w[...] vs. a regular array? I'm sure you can think up reasons simply by looking at the two, and then typing them in, and thinking about what you just did.
Use %w[...] when you have a list of single words you want to turn into an array. I use it when I have parameters I want to loop over, or commands I know I'll want to add to in the future, because %w[...] makes it easy to add new elements to the array. There's less visual noise in the definition of the array.
Use a regular array of strings when you have elements that have embedded white-space that would trick %w. Use it for arrays that have to contain elements that are not strings. Enclosing the elements inside " and ' with intervening commas causes visual-noise, but it also makes it possible to create arrays with any object type.
So, you pick when to use one or the other when it makes the most sense to you. It's called "programmer's choice".
As you correctly noted, they generate the same result. So, when deciding, choose one that produces simpler code. In this case, it's the %w operator. In the case of your previous question, it's the array literal.
Using %w allows you to avoid using quotes around strings.
Moreover, there are more shortcuts like these:
%W - double quotes
%r - regular expression
%q - single-quoted string
%Q - double-quoted string
%x - shell command
More information is available in "What does %w(array) mean?"
This is the way I remember it:
%Q/%q is for strings
%Q is for double-quoted strings (useful for when you have multiple quote characters in a string).
Instead of doing this:
“I said \“Hello World\””
You can do:
%Q{I said “Hello World”}
%q is for single-quoted strings (remember single quoted strings do not support string interpolation or escape sequences e.g. \n. And when I say does not "support", I mean that single quoted strings will need process the escape sequence as a special character, in other words, the escape sequence will just be part of the string literal)
Instead of doing this:
‘I said \’Hello World\’’
You can do:
%q{I said 'Hello World'}
But note that if you have an escape sequence in string, that will not be processed and instead treated as a literal backslash and n character:
result = %q{I said Hello World\n}
=> "I said Hello World\\n"
puts result
I said Hello World\n
Notice the literal \n was not treated as a line break, but it is with %Q:
result = %Q{I said Hello World\n}
=> "I said Hello World\n"
puts result
I said Hello World
%W/%w is for array elements
%W is used for double-quoted array elements. This means that it will support string interpolation and escape sequences:
Instead of doing this:
orange = "orange"
result = ["apple", "#{orange}", "grapes"]
=> ["apple", "orange", "grapes”]
you can do this:
result = %W(apple #{orange} grapes\n)
=> ["apple", "orange", "grapes\n"]
puts result
apple
orange
grapes
Notice the escape sequence \n caused a newline break after grapes. That would not happen with %w. %w is used for single-quoted array elements. And of course single quoted strings do not support interpolation and escape sequences.
Instead of doing this:
result = [‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’]
you can do:
result = %w{a b c}
But look what happens when we try this:
result = %w{a b c\n}
=> ["a", "b", "c\\n"]
puts result
a
b
c\n
Remember do not confuse these constructs with %x (alternative for ` backtick which is used to run unix commands), %r (alternative for // regular expression syntax useful when you have a lot of / characters in your regular expressions and do not want to escape them) and finally %s (which is sued for symbols).
If I have:
["eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e", "f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4",
"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5", "83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"]
(where the entire thing is a string)
Is there a simple regular expression that I can use to select content within the quotes (quotes included)?
Since the above comes out as a string. I want to use regex to select out each id within the quotes (along with the quotes) and store them into a ruby array.
Simply use this regex
"[^"]*"
[^"]* says match any character except " i.e [^"] 0 to many times i.e *
Try using the String#scan method with the regular expression /"[^"]+"/:
ids = str.scan(/"[^"]+"/) # => [ "eaacbf7e-...", "f9e52e06-...", ...]
puts ids
"eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e"
"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4"
"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5"
"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"
That expression breaks down like so:
str.scan(/"[^"]+"/)
# │├──┘│└─ Another literal quotation mark (").
# ││ └─ Match one or more of the previous thing.
# │└─ A class matching any character except (^) quotation marks.
# └─ A literal quotation mark (").
Why are you getting the string in that format? It looks like JSON output, which, if it is, should be parsed by the JSON module.
require 'json'
require 'pp'
foo = [
"eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e",
"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4",
"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5",
"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"
]
foo.to_json
=> "[\"eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e\",\"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4\",\"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5\",\"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5\"]"
That's probably the string you're getting. If you parse it using the JSON parser, you'll get back a Ruby array:
pp JSON[ foo.to_json ]
=> ["eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e",
"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4",
"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5",
"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"]
If I wanted to remove things like:
.!,'"^-# from an array of strings, how would I go about this while retaining all alphabetical and numeric characters.
Allowed alphabetical characters should also include letters with diacritical marks including à or ç.
You should use a regex with the correct character property. In this case, you can invert the Alnum class (Alphabetic and numeric character):
"◊¡ Marc-André !◊".gsub(/\p{^Alnum}/, '') # => "MarcAndré"
For more complex cases, say you wanted also punctuation, you can also build a set of acceptable characters like:
"◊¡ Marc-André !◊".gsub(/[^\p{Alnum}\p{Punct}]/, '') # => "¡MarcAndré!"
For all character properties, you can refer to the doc.
string.gsub(/[^[:alnum:]]/, "")
The following will work for an array:
z = ['asfdå', 'b12398!', 'c98347']
z.each { |s| s.gsub! /[^[:alnum:]]/, '' }
puts z.inspect
I borrowed Jeremy's suggested regex.
You might consider a regular expression.
http://www.regular-expressions.info/ruby.html
I'm assuming that you're using ruby since you tagged that in your post. You could go through the array, put it through a test using a regexp, and if it passes remove/keep it based on the regexp you use.
A regexp you might use might go something like this:
[^.!,^-#]
That will tell you if its not one of the characters inside the brackets. However, I suggest that you look up regular expressions, you might find a better solution once you know their syntax and usage.
If you truly have an array (as you state) and it is an array of strings (I'm guessing), e.g.
foo = [ "hello", "42 cats!", "yöwza" ]
then I can imagine that you either want to update each string in the array with a new value, or that you want a modified array that only contains certain strings.
If the former (you want to 'clean' every string the array) you could do one of the following:
foo.each{ |s| s.gsub! /\p{^Alnum}/, '' } # Change every string in place…
bar = foo.map{ |s| s.gsub /\p{^Alnum}/, '' } # …or make an array of new strings
#=> [ "hello", "42cats", "yöwza" ]
If the latter (you want to select a subset of the strings where each matches your criteria of holding only alphanumerics) you could use one of these:
# Select only those strings that contain ONLY alphanumerics
bar = foo.select{ |s| s =~ /\A\p{Alnum}+\z/ }
#=> [ "hello", "yöwza" ]
# Shorthand method for the same thing
bar = foo.grep /\A\p{Alnum}+\z/
#=> [ "hello", "yöwza" ]
In Ruby, regular expressions of the form /\A………\z/ require the entire string to match, as \A anchors the regular expression to the start of the string and \z anchors to the end.
I'm looking at the documentation for FileUtils.
I'm confused by the following line:
FileUtils.cp %w(cgi.rb complex.rb date.rb), '/usr/lib/ruby/1.6'
What does the %w mean? Can you point me to the documentation?
%w(foo bar) is a shortcut for ["foo", "bar"]. Meaning it's a notation to write an array of strings separated by spaces instead of commas and without quotes around them. You can find a list of ways of writing literals in zenspider's quickref.
I think of %w() as a "word array" - the elements are delimited by spaces and it returns an array of strings.
Here are all % literals:
%w() array of strings
%r() regular expression.
%q() string
%x() a shell command (returning the output string)
%i() array of symbols (Ruby >= 2.0.0)
%s() symbol
%() (without letter) shortcut for %Q()
The delimiters ( and ) can be replaced with a lot of variations, like [ and ], |, !, etc.
When using a capital letter %W() you can use string interpolation #{variable}, similar to the " and ' string delimiters. This rule works for all the other % literals as well.
abc = 'a b c'
%w[1 2#{abc} d] #=> ["1", "2\#{abc}", "d"]
%W[1 2#{abc} d] #=> ["1", "2a b c", "d"]
There is also %s that allows you to create any symbols, for example:
%s|some words| #Same as :'some words'
%s[other words] #Same as :'other words'
%s_last example_ #Same as :'last example'
Since Ruby 2.0.0 you also have:
%i( a b c ) # => [ :a, :b, :c ]
%i[ a b c ] # => [ :a, :b, :c ]
%i_ a b c _ # => [ :a, :b, :c ]
# etc...
%W and %w allow you to create an Array of strings without using quotes and commas.
Though it's an old post, the question keep coming up and the answers don't always seem clear to me, so, here's my thoughts:
%w and %W are examples of General Delimited Input types, that relate to Arrays. There are other types that include %q, %Q, %r, %x and %i.
The difference between the upper and lower case version is that it gives us access to the features of single and double quotes. With single quotes and (lowercase) %w, we have no code interpolation (#{someCode}) and a limited range of escape characters that work (\\, \n). With double quotes and (uppercase) %W we do have access to these features.
The delimiter used can be any character, not just the open parenthesis. Play with the examples above to see that in effect.
For a full write up with examples of %w and the full list, escape characters and delimiters, have a look at "Ruby - %w vs %W – secrets revealed!"
Instead of %w() we should use %w[]
According to Ruby style guide:
Prefer %w to the literal array syntax when you need an array of words (non-empty strings without spaces and special characters in them). Apply this rule only to arrays with two or more elements.
# bad
STATES = ['draft', 'open', 'closed']
# good
STATES = %w[draft open closed]
Use the braces that are the most appropriate for the various kinds of percent literals.
[] for array literals(%w, %i, %W, %I) as it is aligned with the standard array literals.
# bad
%w(one two three)
%i(one two three)
# good
%w[one two three]
%i[one two three]
For more read here.
Excerpted from the documentation for Percent Strings at http://ruby-doc.org/core/doc/syntax/literals_rdoc.html#label-Percent+Strings:
Besides %(...) which creates a String, the % may create other types of object. As with strings, an uppercase letter allows interpolation and escaped characters while a lowercase letter disables them.
These are the types of percent strings in ruby:
...
%w: Array of Strings
I was given a bunch of columns from a CSV spreadsheet of full names of users and I needed to keep the formatting, with spaces. The easiest way I found to get them in while using ruby was to do:
names = %(Porter Smith
Jimmy Jones
Ronald Jackson).split("\n")
This highlights that %() creates a string like "Porter Smith\nJimmyJones\nRonald Jackson" and to get the array you split the string on the "\n" ["Porter Smith", "Jimmy Jones", "Ronald Jackson"]
So to answer the OP's original question too, they could have wrote %(cgi\ spaeinfilename.rb;complex.rb;date.rb).split(';') if there happened to be space when you want the space to exist in the final array output.