# Escape character is strings

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escape-character-is-strings/121289>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 26, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escape-character-is-strings/121289 "2007-11-26T15:51:05Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/agnibhu)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 3:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escape-character-is-strings/121289/1 "2007-11-26T15:51:05Z")

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Hi all,

I’m very new to Ruby. My problem is simply to search for ‘’ character  
from a string. The string is the windows file path. I have to either  
escape the ‘’ character or substitute it with ‘/’. But String::include?  
methods doesn’t seems to be helpful. Please see the log.

irb(main):004:0\> fold = “abcdefgh/ajf;ldsj\dfd”  
=\> “abcdefgh/ajf;ldsjdfd”  
irb(main):005:0\> puts fold.include?("\")  
false  
=\> nil  
irb(main):006:0\> puts fold.include?("")  
irb(main):007:1"

so how can we search for the ‘’ using .include?

Thanks and Regards,  
Deepu D

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/agnibhu)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escape-character-is-strings/121289/2 "2007-11-26T16:03:48Z")

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On Nov 26, 2007 9:51 AM, Deepu D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> false  
> Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/).

In a quoted expression, the backslash escapes the following character,  
so you need to use two backslashes instead, like this:

irb(main):004:0\> fold = “abcdefgh/ajf;ldsj\dfd”  
=\> “abcdefgh/ajf;ldsj\dfd”  
irb(main):005:0\> puts fold.include?(“\”)  
true  
=\> nil

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/agnibhu)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 4:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escape-character-is-strings/121289/3 "2007-11-26T16:04:58Z")

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On Nov 26, 2007 8:51 AM, Deepu D. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)  
wrote:

> false  
> =\> nil  
> irb(main):006:0\> puts fold.include?(“")  
> irb(main):007:1”
> 
> so how can we search for the '' using .include?

Your irb line 5 is just fine. It’s the line 4 that seems wrong. To  
redo your line 4…

irb\> fold = “abcdefgh/ajf;ldsj\def”

or…

irb\> fold = ‘abcdefgh/ajf;ldsj\def’

The same goes for your line 6. Your are escaping the second " and  
that’s why it’s asking you for another one.

hth,  
Todd

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@agnibhu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/agnibhu)\
**Post date:** [November 26, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/escape-character-is-strings/121289/4 "2007-11-26T19:32:23Z")

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You can use the integer equivalent of the character as well.

fold.include?(92)