# Problem in 2 code **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 31, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-in-2-code/192507 "2010-07-31T23:47:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-in-2-code/192507/1 "2010-07-31T23:47:03Z")
Hi I dont understand results of these 2 code ? please explain me what do every code do ? 1 - x = “This is a test”.match( /(\w+)(\w+)/ ) puts x[0] puts x[1] puts x[2] 2 - x = “This is a test”.match( /(\w+) (\w+)/ ) puts x[0] puts x[1] puts x[2] ---
**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 6:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-in-2-code/192507/2 "2010-08-01T06:14:29Z")
Amir E. wrote: > Hi > I dont understand results of these 2 code ? > please explain me what do every code do ? > > 1 - > x = “This is a test”.match( /(\w+)(\w+)/ ) > puts x[0] > puts x[1] > puts x[2] > > 2 - > x = “This is a test”.match( /(\w+) (\w+)/ ) > puts x[0] > puts x[1] > puts x[2] /(\w+)(\w+)/ is a Regexp. If you want to know about it, you should probably look it up to help remove the confusion. \w+ means one or more word characters, so /(\w+)(\w+)/ means 2 word characters or more. Based on the string, the match method returns the first instance that matches it, which is “This”. As to what the x[1] and x[2] put to the screen, I could be totally wrong about it but I’m guessing they might be the parts that match the parts of the Regexp given. However, it’d probably be best to ask someone else about that. In the second code, it’s the same thing except there’s a space between the two \w+. This means at least one word character followed by a space followed by at least one word character. That is why it returns the match “This is” instead of just “This”. I hope this was helpful. ---
**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 9:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-in-2-code/192507/3 "2010-08-01T09:19:45Z")
Thanks for answer , but yet I have a problem : what does first code do? why when I write “puts x[0]” ruby returns “This” and for “puts x[1]” returns “Thi” and for “puts x[2]” returns “s” ? ---
**Author:** ![amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/a/41988e/32.png) [@amiref](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/amiref)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2010, 10:14am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/problem-in-2-code/192507/4 "2010-08-01T10:14:15Z")
Hello Amir, On 01.08.2010 09:19, Amir E. wrote: > why when I write “puts x[0]” ruby returns “This” and for “puts x[1]” > returns “Thi” and for “puts x[2]” returns “s” ? The first (x[0]) is always the complete match the whole regular expression did match. The rest are the individual sub matches, if there are any. One also has to know that, by default, in most implementation any regular expression is “greedy”, which means it tries to match as much characters as possible. So, given your first example: “This is a test”.match( /(\w+)(\w+)/ ) \w - match a a single “word” character \w+ - match at least one _or_ more “word” characters Now since by default everything is greedy, the first \w+ tries to match as much as possible. Since the second \w+ wants to fulfill it task too, the first \w+ eats up already everything until the last character and leaves that for the second \w+ . There’s a special character ? which can be used to tell a regex to be non-greedy, try this example: “This is a test”.match( /(\w+?)(\w+)/ ) irb(main):006:0\> “1234”.match(/(\d+?)(\d+)/) =\> #\ The \w+? means “match as few as possible” and thus it only matches the first “1” and leaves all the rest to the second \w+ . In your case it’s debatable whether this regex really makes sense though; at a first glance it doesn’t look like a generally useful case and really looks very specific. HTH