# Return string within seperators only

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/return-string-within-seperators-only/186623>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 9, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/return-string-within-seperators-only/186623 "2010-04-09T22:02:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![xtremebain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/a6a055/32.png) [@xtremebain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xtremebain)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 10:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/return-string-within-seperators-only/186623/1 "2010-04-09T22:02:06Z")

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trying to do something like this

some text  
some more text /what I want/ some more text  
some more text

returns

“what I want”

how would I write this to get just what is between the first and second  
forward slashes?

also I might want to use several times within the same file.

thanks in advance.

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**Author:** ![xtremebain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/a6a055/32.png) [@xtremebain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xtremebain)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2010, 10:26pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/return-string-within-seperators-only/186623/2 "2010-04-09T22:26:45Z")

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On 4/9/10, Jesse B. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> how would I write this to get just what is between the first and second  
> forward slashes?

irb(main):001:0\> s=\<\<END  
irb(main):002:0" some text  
irb(main):003:0" some more text /what I want/ some more text  
irb(main):004:0" some more text  
irb(main):005:0" END  
=\> “some text\nsome more text /what I want/ some more text\nsome more  
text\n”  
irb(main):006:0\> s[%r{/.\*?/}]  
=\> “/what I want/”

> also I might want to use several times within the same file.

irb(main):007:0\> s\<\<\<\<END2  
irb(main):008:0" yet some more text  
irb(main):009:0" blab blab /what I want even more/ and after that  
irb(main):010:0" yaddidda yaddidda  
irb(main):011:0" END2  
=\> “some text\nsome more text /what I want/ some more text\nsome more  
text\nyet some more text\nblab blab /what I want even more/ and after  
that\nyaddidda yaddidda\n”  
irb(main):012:0\> s.scan %r{/.\*?/}  
=\> [“/what I want/”, “/what I want even more/”]

HTH

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![xtremebain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/a6a055/32.png) [@xtremebain](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xtremebain)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/return-string-within-seperators-only/186623/3 "2010-04-10T13:45:51Z")

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On 04/09/2010 10:26 PM, Caleb C. wrote:

> > 
> 
> =\> “/what I want/”  
> With a capturing group you can even get exactly the text wanted:

irb(main):001:0\> s = “some /text that I want/ not”  
=\> “some /text that I want/ not”  
irb(main):002:0\> s[%r{/(.\*?)/}, 1]  
=\> “text that I want”

Or, if you also want to remove whitespace at the edges:

irb(main):004:0\> s = “some / text that I want trimmed / not”  
=\> “some / text that I want trimmed / not”  
irb(main):005:0\> s[%r{/(._?)/}, 1]  
=\> " text that I want trimmed "  
irb(main):006:0\> s[%r{/\s_(._?)\s_/}, 1]  
=\> “text that I want trimmed”

Kind regards

robert