hi there
i wanting to write a regular expression which matches words which
contain the vowels [aeiou] in alphabetical order
im not sure where to start so any help would be greatly appreciated
thans
On 16 Jan 2008, at 15:57, Johnathan S. wrote:
i wanting to write a regular expression which matches words which
contain the vowels [aeiou] in alphabetical orderim not sure where to start so any help would be greatly appreciated
This will get you started:
IRB:
re = /[^aeiou][a][^aeiou][e][^aeiou][i][^aeiou][o][^aeiou][u]
[^aeiou]/
=> [aeiou][a][aeiou][e][aeiou][i][aeiou][o][aeiou][u][aeiou]‘abstemious’ =~ re
=> 0‘facetious’ =~ re
=> 0‘bstemious’ =~ re
=> nil‘ebstamious’ =~ re
=> nil
You can see there’s a lot of repetition in the regular expression so
the next step would probably be to DRY it. I leave that as an
exercise to the reader (because I can’t work out how to do it 
You’ll may also wish to anchor the regular expression so it doesn’t
cross words.
Regards,
Andy S.
On 1/16/08, Johnathan S. [email protected] wrote:
Something like this?
irb(main):001:0> “frabelious” =~ /a.?e.?i.?o.?u/
=> 2
irb(main):002:0> “frabeelious” =~ /a.?e.?i.?o.?u/
=> 2
irb(main):003:0> “friaeelaous” =~ /a.?e.?i.?o.?u/
=> nil
–
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Rick Denatale wrote:
Something like this?
irb(main):001:0> “frabelious” =~ /a.?e.?i.?o.?u/
=> 2
This doesn’t work as expected…
irb(main):001:0> “xaxxixxexxixxuxxoxxuxx”.match(/a.?e.?i.?o.?u/)[0]
=> “axxixxexxixxuxxoxxu”
…, because it allows all wovels in any order in the word, if there is
one possible grouping with the wanted ordering - The subpattern “a.*?e”
for example allows any number of "a"s, "i"s, "o"s, and "u"s between the
“a” and the “e”.
Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner
On 16 Jan 2008, at 16:52, Andrew S. wrote:
re = /[^aeiou][a][^aeiou][e][^aeiou][i][^aeiou][o][^aeiou]*
[u][^aeiou]*/
Oops, that should have been:
re = /[^aeiou]*a[^aeiou]*e[^aeiou]*i[^aeiou]*o[^aeiou]u[^aeiou]/
Regards,
Andy S.
Andrew S. wrote:
You can see there’s a lot of repetition in the regular expression so
the next step would probably be to DRY it.
O.K. - it really increases the readability 
re = Regexp.compile((v=p=’’)+"^#{p="[^#{v=‘aeiou’}]"}"+v.split(’’).
join("[^#{v}]")+p+’$’)
p re # =>
/^[^aeiou]*a[^aeiou]*e[^aeiou]*i[^aeiou]*o[^aeiou]u[^aeiou]$/
Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner
On 1/16/08, Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner [email protected] wrote:
…, because it allows all wovels in any order in the word, if there is
one possible grouping with the wanted ordering - The subpattern “a.*?e”
for example allows any number of "a"s, "i"s, "o"s, and "u"s between the
“a” and the “e”.
Ahh, but “xaxxixxexxixxuxxoxxuxx” DOES contain the vowels in
alphabetical order, the original problem statement said nothing about
disallowing additional vowels.
I really posted my “solution” to drive out what he really wanted.
Kind of a test-driven approach.
–
Rick DeNatale
My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/
Rick Denatale wrote:
I really posted my “solution” to drive out what he really wanted.
Kind of a test-driven approach.
Oh - I see. Let’s wait for the more complete specification
Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner
On 16 Jan 2008, at 22:19, Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner wrote:
Andrew S. wrote:
You can see there’s a lot of repetition in the regular expression so
the next step would probably be to DRY it.O.K. - it really increases the readability
re = Regexp.compile((v=p=’’)+"^#{p="[^#{v=‘aeiou’}]"}"+v.split(’’).
join("[^#{v}]")+p+’$’)
p re # =>
/^[^aeiou]*a[^aeiou]*e[^aeiou]*i[^aeiou]*o[^aeiou]u[^aeiou]$/
Yikes!
That’s clever though my brain copes better with this halfway house:
consonant = /[^aeiou]/
re = /#{consonant}*a#{consonant}*e#{consonant}*i#{consonant}*o#
{consonant}u#{consonant}/
Or, perhaps, in-between the in-betweens:
vowels = %w( a e i o u )
consonant = ‘[^aeiou]’
re = /#{vowels.push(’’).unshift(’’).join("#{consonant}*")}/
Regards,
Andy S.
On Jan 16, 2008 8:03 PM, Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner [email protected]
wrote:
…, because it allows all wovels in any order in the word, if there is
one possible grouping with the wanted ordering - The subpattern “a.*?e”
for example allows any number of "a"s, "i"s, "o"s, and "u"s between the
“a” and the “e”.Wolfgang Nádasi-Donner
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
try something like:
/a+[^a]*e+[^ae]*i+[^aei]*o+[^aeio]*u+/
On Jan 16, 2008 4:57 PM, Johnathan S. removed_emai[email protected] wrote:
hi there
i wanting to write a regular expression which matches words which
contain the vowels [aeiou] in alphabetical orderim not sure where to start so any help would be greatly appreciated
Start with regular expression documentation; I think that’s what your
teacher would want, instead of just having ruby-talk do your homework
for you.
http://ysomeya.hp.infoseek.co.jp/eng-quick_regex.html is one place to
start (very short); http://evolt.org/article/thelist/20/22700/ is
another, more extensive tutorial.
Neither of these are Ruby specific - this is OK, as what you need is
to understand the language regular expressions, not the language Ruby.
Eivind.