# Weird conversion in IRB **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 20, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779 "2008-11-20T23:59:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuby2ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2008, 11:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779/1 "2008-11-20T23:59:32Z")
For some reason I have this line I am pasting from a text file into IRB, and it is converting the spaces into the word “bee” IF test @yst-hide-felicite irb(main):001:0\> WHENbeeNONEMPTYbee@horizontal-featured-item-text If I paste it into the normal prompt it works though… C:\rails\_apps\transfer-util\>WHEN NONEMPTY @horizontal-featured-item-text It works everywhere but IRB. The file I am copying this from I made, so I know they are just spaces. Anyone else seen anything like this? ~Jeremy ---
**Author:** ![nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuby2ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 12:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779/2 "2008-11-21T00:08:40Z")
Jeremy W. wrote: > For some reason I have this line I am pasting from a text file into IRB, > and it is converting the spaces into the word “bee” > > IF test @yst-hide-felicite > > irb(main):001:0\> WHENbeeNONEMPTYbee@horizontal-featured-item-text > > If I paste it into the normal prompt it works though… > > C:\rails\_apps\transfer-util\>WHEN NONEMPTY @horizontal-featured-item-text > > It works everywhere but IRB. The file I am copying this from I made, so > I know they are just spaces. > > Anyone else seen anything like this? > > ~Jeremy ok, let me re-phrase something. When I made the file, I didn’t write it by hand. I used another script to generate it. I guess in a text editor, they look like spaces, but when I do a puts file.readlines[0] I get back =\> “WHEN\302\240NONEMPTY\302\240@horizontal-featured-item-text2\n” what is \302\240 ?? ---
**Author:** ![nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuby2ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 1:43am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779/3 "2008-11-21T01:43:32Z")
ok, I’ve been reading more on it. I guess it’s like unicode or something… anyway, I need help with it still. I have a string, “FOR-EACH-OBJECT\302\240@contents2\n” and I want to split it by the \302\240, just doing string.split(’\302\240’) doesn’t work. Any ideas? Thanks, ~Jeremy ---
**Author:** ![nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuby2ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779/4 "2008-11-21T02:19:13Z")
Jeremy W. wrote: > ok, I’ve been reading more on it. I guess it’s like unicode or > something… > > anyway, I need help with it still. I have a string, > > “FOR-EACH-OBJECT\302\240@contents2\n” > > and I want to split it by the \302\240, just doing > > string.split(’\302\240’) doesn’t work. > > Any ideas? > > Thanks, > ~Jeremy Splitting with a regex works. string.split(/\302\240/) hth, Siep ---
**Author:** ![nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuby2ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 9:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779/5 "2008-11-21T09:55:54Z")
Jeremy W. wrote: > ok, I’ve been reading more on it. I guess it’s like unicode or > something… Yep, you can even see the string broken into unicode chars: irb(main):009:0\> src.scan(/./u) =\> [“W”, “H”, “E”, “N”, “\302\240”, “N”, “O”, “N”, “E”, “M”, “P”, “T”, “Y”, “\302\240”, “@”, “h”, “o”, “r”, “i”, “z”, “o”, “n”, “t”, “a”, “l”, “-”, “f”, “e”, “a”, “t”, “u”, “r”, “e”, “d”, “-”, “i”, “t”, “e”, “m”, “-”, “t”, “e”, “x”, “t”, “2”] > and I want to split it by the \302\240, just doing > > string.split(’\302\240’) doesn’t work. You need double-quotes, not single-quotes, for the \nnn syntax to be turned into single bytes. irb(main):011:0\> src.split("\302\240") =\> [“WHEN”, “NONEMPTY”, “@horizontal-featured-item-text2\n”] ---
**Author:** ![nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/54ee81/32.png) [@nuby2ruby](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/nuby2ruby)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2008, 6:10pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/weird-conversion-in-irb/153779/6 "2008-11-21T18:10:29Z")
wow, that’s so weird, but it worked! Thanks man. ~Jeremy Brian C. wrote: > Jeremy W. wrote: > > > ok, I’ve been reading more on it. I guess it’s like unicode or > > something… > > Yep, you can even see the string broken into unicode chars: > > irb(main):009:0\> src.scan(/./u) > =\> [“W”, “H”, “E”, “N”, “\302\240”, “N”, “O”, “N”, “E”, “M”, “P”, “T”, > “Y”, “\302\240”, “@”, “h”, “o”, “r”, “i”, “z”, “o”, “n”, “t”, “a”, “l”, > “-”, “f”, “e”, “a”, “t”, “u”, “r”, “e”, “d”, “-”, “i”, “t”, “e”, “m”, > “-”, “t”, “e”, “x”, “t”, “2”] > > > and I want to split it by the \302\240, just doing > > > > string.split(’\302\240’) doesn’t work. > > You need double-quotes, not single-quotes, for the \nnn syntax to be > turned into single bytes. > > irb(main):011:0\> src.split("\302\240") > =\> [“WHEN”, “NONEMPTY”, “@horizontal-featured-item-text2\n”]