# How to wrap a long string

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [September 25, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511 "2008-09-25T16:05:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**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:** [September 25, 2008, 4:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511/1 "2008-09-25T16:05:45Z")

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Hi all,

I need to wrap a long string into several small segments.  
I search the forum and see a few solutions for that. I copy one script  
and run it on my Vista(with very small change) and here are the output:

C:\Documents and Settings\chen73\>irb  
irb(main):001:0\> text = ‘aaaaa11111AAAAA22222BBBBB’  
=\> “aaaaa11111AAAAA22222BBBBB”  
irb(main):002:0\> 0.step(text.length, 5) {|x| puts text[x, x+5]}  
aaaaa  
11111AAAAA  
AAAAA22222BBBBB  
22222BBBBB  
BBBBB

=\> 0

It looks like the script really wraps the string. But it also repeats  
printing out some stuff, such two times of ‘AAAAA’, ‘22222’, 3 times of  
‘BBBBB’.  
Is it possible to get the output as follows:

aaaaa  
11111  
AAAAA  
22222  
BBBBB

Thanks,

Li

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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:** [September 25, 2008, 4:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511/2 "2008-09-25T16:36:27Z")

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Li Chen wrote:

> text[x, x+5]

You wanted either text[x…(x+5)] or better text[x,5]. Have a look at  
String#[].

TPR.

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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:** [September 25, 2008, 4:44pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511/3 "2008-09-25T16:44:14Z")

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Considering that :

a = “1112223334444”

watch the following irb session :

irb(main):010:0\> a.scan(/((.)\2+)/).collect {|match| match[0]}  
=\> [“111”, “222”, “333”, “4444”]

using that regex , you’ll obtain an array of matches .

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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:** [September 25, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511/4 "2008-09-25T17:27:40Z")

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On 25.09.2008, at 16:43, Lex W. wrote:

> Considering that :
> 
> a = “1112223334444”
> 
> watch the following irb session :
> 
> irb(main):010:0\> a.scan(/((.)\2+)/).collect {|match| match[0]}  
> =\> [“111”, “222”, “333”, “4444”]

great idea!  
… this will also match single letters / digits

irb(main):020:0\> a = “11111122233344444445556667778888888AAABCCDEEEEF”  
=\> “11111122233344444445556667778888888AAABCCDEEEEF”  
irb(main):021:0\> puts a.scan( /((.)\2+|.)/ ).collect { |x| x[0] }  
111111  
222  
333  
4444444  
555  
666  
777  
8888888  
AAA  
B  
CC  
D  
EEEE  
F

regards  
Karl-Heinz

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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:** [September 26, 2008, 12:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-wrap-a-long-string/149511/5 "2008-09-26T00:44:44Z")

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You’ll miss the unrepeated characters:

> ruby -e ‘p “abbcccdddd”.scan(/((.)\2+)/).transpose.shift’  
> [“bb”, “ccc”, “dddd”]

Where did “a” go?

Change the “+” into “\*” and it’ll work:

> ruby -e ‘p “abbcccdddd”.scan(/((.)\2\*)/).transpose.shift’  
> [“a”, “bb”, “ccc”, “dddd”]

gegroet,  
Erik V. - [http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/](http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/)