Multiple matches

Ruby
1

Hi all,

How to find out pattern’cat’ in this string=‘ccccatgggctacatgggtcat’
? There are three ‘cat’ within the string and I want to return the
position of each match.

Although # match return the match , #pre_match and #post_match do the
tricks but they only work for the first match. How about the 2nd, third
match, and more? I try #scan(pattern) but it doesn’t return the
position for each match. I wonder how other handle this problem.

Thanks,

Li

2

Li Chen [email protected] wrote:

I try #scan(pattern) but it doesn’t return the
position for each match. I wonder how other handle this problem.

It doesn’t “return” the position but it does capture the position.

s = ‘ccccatgggctacatgggtcat’
s.scan(‘cat’) {puts Regexp.last_match.begin(0)}

The last regex match is always hanging around waiting for you to ask
about it… Hope that helps - m.

3

On May 28, 2009, at 10:15 AM, matt neuburg wrote:

The last regex match is always hanging around waiting for you to ask
about it… Hope that helps - m.

–
matt neuburg, phd = [email protected], Matt Neuburg’s Home Page
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irb> s
=> “ccccatgggctacatgggtcat”
irb> pos = []
=> []
irb> while x = s.index(‘cat’, (pos.last||-1)+1)
irb> pos << x
irb> end
=> nil
irb> pos
=> [3, 12, 19]

String#index is the way to go. The second arg is the position to start
looking for a match. [].last==nil so it is a small trick to make the
first loop test pass a 0 or 1 more than the previous match position.

-Rob

Rob B. http://agileconsultingllc.com
[email protected]

4

On Thu, May 28, 2009 at 9:34 PM, Li Chen [email protected] wrote:

How to find out pattern’cat’ in this string=‘ccccatgggctacatgggtcat’
? There are three ‘cat’ within the string and I want to return the position of each match.

there is String#index.
there is no indexes, but you can build one if you like

eg,

s
=> “ccccatgggctacatgggtcat”
class String
def indexes str, n=0
n=index( str, n)
if n
[n] + indexes( str, n+=1)
else
[]
end
end
end
=> nil
s.indexes “cat”
=> [3, 12, 19]

the faster way is to loop, but i just want to test my recursion skill
:wink:

best regards
-botp