Regex position error

Ruby
#1

I have a regular expression:
Regexp.new(/^(\w+([-’]\w+))(\ \w+([-’]\w+))+$/)
and I need to know the position of a invalid character.

For example, if a invalid character is a number, I can recover it using:
“gisele bund9chen”.index(/\d/)

But, I need generalize the regular expression to find any a character
different of \w, space ’ and -.

Thanks,
Carlos C.

#2

On Aug 10, 2011, at 15:19 , Carlos C. wrote:

I have a regular expression:
Regexp.new(/^(\w+([-’]\w+))(\ \w+([-’]\w+))+$/)

Regexp.new(regexp) is the same as regexp. Don’t wrap in Regexp.new for
no reason.

and I need to know the position of a invalid character.

For example, if a invalid character is a number, I can recover it using:
“gisele bund9chen”.index(/\d/)

/\d/ is to /[0-9]/ as /\D/ is to /[^0-9]/

But, I need generalize the regular expression to find any a character
different of \w, space ’ and -.

For more goodies see the regexp section of the ruby quickref.

#3

Dear Camargo,

/((^| )[ -’]|[^\D’- ]/ or something like this

Try to follow the KISS principle. As a rule of thumb,
when something is getting too much complex, you might be doing it wrong.

Regards,

 Luiz Angelo Daros de Luca, Me.
        [email protected]

2011/8/10 Ryan D. [email protected]

#4

Hi, De Luca and Davis,

Thanks for your help. I found a solution that works fine:
/( |-|’)( |-|’)|^( |-|’)|( |-|’)$|^$|\d|[^a-z
çáäãàâéèëêíìïöóòôõüúùû-’]/i
The solution proposed by De Luca doesn’t work for some characters (e.g.
“?”).

Best regards,
Carlos C.

#5

Whoops.

I need to know the position of a invalid character.

str = %Q[gisele !’_"9? bundchen]

str.scan(/[^\w’ -]/) do |match|
md = Regexp.last_match
pos = md.begin(0)
puts “#{match} : #{pos}”
end

–output:–
! : 7
" : 10
? : 12

#6

str = %Q[gisele !’_"9? bundchen]

str.scan(/[^\w’ -]/) do |match|
puts match
end

–output:–
!
"
?