# Include? won't find match even though it's in String

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/include-wont-find-match-even-though-its-in-string/171880>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 10, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/include-wont-find-match-even-though-its-in-string/171880 "2009-07-10T17:11:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/crucoba)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 5:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/include-wont-find-match-even-though-its-in-string/171880/1 "2009-07-10T17:11:08Z")

</div>

#removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid is in the string test12 which is a string of email  
addresses #separated by newline characters  
#puts test12 prints out very nice listing of all email addresses on a  
separate #line including the aforementioned removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
#I tried it with a test13 object in which I “slice!”(ed) everything out  
#according to /[A-Za-z0-9\_.%@-]+ / but I got the same results and puts  
test13 #basically shows the same as test12 with the newline characters  
removed which #was what I expected.

if(test12.include? “person@coge”) then  
puts “person@coge found”  
else  
puts “person@coge not found”  
end  
------\> Outputs -----\> ‘person@coge found’

## if(test12.include? “person@cogec”) then puts “person@cogec found” else puts “person@cogec not found” end -------\>Outputs -------\> ‘person@cogec not found’

This is so bizarre I can’t explain it… I even tried splicing out all  
newline characters etc and I still get the same results. As soon as I  
get to the second ‘c’ in cogec the string is not found in test12. Of  
course my goal is to be able to find ‘removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid’ in the string  
test12 since it is in the string test12.

(please note that I’ve changed the original email address to person in  
order to protect privacy)

Please let me know if there is a solution to this problem or if you have  
any ideas.

thanks in advance,  
Dave.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/crucoba)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 5:29pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/include-wont-find-match-even-though-its-in-string/171880/2 "2009-07-10T17:29:55Z")

</div>

Hi –

On Sat, 11 Jul 2009, David Charles wrote:

> puts “person@coge found”  
> -------\>Outputs -------\> ‘person@cogec not found’
> 
> Please let me know if there is a solution to this problem or if you have  
> any ideas.

There has to be something going on beyond what you’re describing.  
String#include? does work:

> > str = “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid”  
> > =\> “removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid”
> 
> > str.include?(“person@coge”)  
> > =\> true
> 
> > str.include?(“person@cogec”)  
> > =\> true

Can you post an entire irb session, or equivalent, where you’re  
getting this problem, including showing the value of the whole string  
(edited for privacy, of course 🙂

David

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/crucoba)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 7:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/include-wont-find-match-even-though-its-in-string/171880/3 "2009-07-10T19:05:49Z")

</div>

On 10.07.2009 17:11, David Charles wrote:

> ```
> puts "person@coge found"
> 
> ```
> 
> -------\>Outputs -------\> ‘person@cogec not found’
> 
> Please let me know if there is a solution to this problem or if you have  
> any ideas.
> 
> thanks in advance,  
> Dave.

What Ruby version? Can you show the exact code to build the string  
test12? It works for me even on 1.8:

$ irb  
irb(main):001:0\> s=\<\<STR  
irb(main):002:0" foo  
irb(main):003:0" bar  
irb(main):004:0" removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
irb(main):005:0" baz  
irb(main):006:0" STR  
=\> “foo\nbar\removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid\nbaz\n”  
irb(main):007:0\> s.include? “person@coge”  
=\> true  
irb(main):008:0\> s.include? “person@cogec”  
=\> true  
irb(main):009:0\>

I suggest to print the string with p to discover control characters you  
might have in there.

Kind regards

robert

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/e8c25b/32.png) [@crucoba](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/crucoba)\
**Post date:** [July 10, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/include-wont-find-match-even-though-its-in-string/171880/4 "2009-07-10T19:30:08Z")

</div>

Hi, thanks for the help guys. I actually just resolved the problem.  
It’s interesting how typing out the problem helped me solve it in this  
case. I guess this should be a lesson to comment my code more  
concisely. 🙂