Ruby global match regexp?
RubyRegexRuby Problem Overview
In other languages, in RegExp you can use /.../g for a global match.
However, in Ruby:
"hello hello".match /(hello)/
Only captures one hello.
How do I capture all hellos?
Ruby Solutions
Solution 1 - Ruby
You can use the scan method. The scan method will either give you an array of all the matches or, if you pass it a block, pass each match to the block.
"hello1 hello2".scan(/(hello\d+)/) # => [["hello1"], ["hello2"]]
"hello1 hello2".scan(/(hello\d+)/).each do|m|
puts m
end
I've written about this method, you can read about it here near the end of the article.
Solution 2 - Ruby
Here's a tip for anyone looking for a way to replace all regex matches with something else.
Rather than the //g flag and one substitution method like many other languages, Ruby uses two different methods instead.
# .sub — Replace the first
"ABABA".sub(/B/, '') # AABA
# .gsub — Replace all
"ABABA".gsub(/B/, '') # AAA
Solution 3 - Ruby
use String#scan. It will return an array of each match, or you can pass a block and it will be called with each match.
All the details at http://ruby-doc.org/core/classes/String.html#M000812