# Ruby string parsing

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-string-parsing/90875>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [April 2, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-string-parsing/90875 "2007-04-02T17:55:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![nick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@nick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nick)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 5:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-string-parsing/90875/1 "2007-04-02T17:55:36Z")

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I’m fairly new to Ruby and I’ve got a question concerning string  
parsing. If I want to take a comma-delimited string of words and put  
each word into an array, how would I do it?

Example:  
string = “one, two, three, four”

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![nick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@nick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nick)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 6:08pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-string-parsing/90875/2 "2007-04-02T18:08:50Z")

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At 5:55 PM +0200 4/2/07, Nick wrote:

> I’m fairly new to Ruby and I’ve got a question concerning string  
> parsing. If I want to take a comma-delimited string of words and  
> put each word into an array, how would I do it?
> 
> Example:  
> string = “one, two, three, four”

> > string.split(/,\s\*/)  
> > =\> [“one”, “two”, “three”, “four”]

-r

## Note - Generic Ruby questions should probably be addressed to removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

[http://www.cfcl.com/rdm](http://www.cfcl.com/rdm) Rich M.  
[http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume](http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid  
[http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog](http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/weblog) +1 650-873-7841

Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![nick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/f9ae1b/32.png) [@nick](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nick)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2007, 6:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/ruby-string-parsing/90875/3 "2007-04-02T18:11:51Z")

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array = string.split(‘,’)

or to make sure there’s no extra white space (I think)

array = string.split(‘,\s\*’)

Please go read:

[http://www.rubycentral.com/book/](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/)

and check out

[http://ruby-doc.org/core](http://ruby-doc.org/core)

Jason