# How to concatenate all the lines into one string

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-concatenate-all-the-lines-into-one-string/71440>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 8, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-concatenate-all-the-lines-into-one-string/71440 "2006-10-08T20:36:41Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alex-osu3)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 8:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-concatenate-all-the-lines-into-one-string/71440/1 "2006-10-08T20:36:41Z")

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Hi all,

I am new to Ruby. I just wonder how I can concatenate all the lines from  
one file and let them become one string.

Thanks,

Li

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**Author:** ![alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alex-osu3)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-concatenate-all-the-lines-into-one-string/71440/2 "2006-10-08T20:46:17Z")

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Li Chen wrote:

> I am new to Ruby. I just wonder how I can concatenate all the lines from  
> one file and let them become one string.

File.read("/path/to/file")

David V.

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**Author:** ![alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alex-osu3)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 8:46pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-concatenate-all-the-lines-into-one-string/71440/3 "2006-10-08T20:46:18Z")

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On Mon, Oct 09, 2006 at 03:36:43AM +0900, Li Chen wrote:

> Hi all,  
> I am new to Ruby. I just wonder how I can concatenate all the lines from  
> one file and let them become one string.

How about:

a=File.open("/home/n6tadam/.xsession").read.gsub!(’\n’, ’ ')

I’ve substituted the newlines for spaces – but you can do whatever you  
want with it.

– Thomas A.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/13edae/32.png) [@alex-osu3](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/alex-osu3)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 8:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-concatenate-all-the-lines-into-one-string/71440/4 "2006-10-08T20:49:20Z")

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Or maybe

File.readlines(“xorg.conf”).join(’ ‘).gsub!("\n",’ ')