Regex search string as is without interpolation

Ruby
1

Hi,

I am trying to use a regex search to find numbers in a string which
contains string interpolation… I need to find and place the number
between the brackets (ie 2) into a variable.

text = “Which corneal dystrophy is inherited in #{question_items[2]}
pattern?”
puts text
=> Which corneal dystrophy is inherited in an autosomal dominant
pattern?

if (/[[0-99]]/) =~ text #Search for [2]
puts text
end

=> Does not find it!

Anybody know how to use regex to search the text abd see the string
without interpolating it?

Thanks,

Dave C., MD

2

Once it evaluates the variable “text” it has already done the
interpolation.

“#{question_items[2]}” is not there anymore.

If you want that string as plain text, you can use single quotes around
it, which won’t evaluate the special characters.

3

Dave C. wrote in post #1169881:

if (/[[0-99]]/) =~ text #Search for [2]
puts text
end

if (/[([0-9]+)]/) =~ text #Search for [2]
puts text
puts $1
end

4

Regis d’Aubarede wrote in post #1169883:

Dave C. wrote in post #1169881:

Single quotes work, but how to convert from:
questions= [
[ [“Which corneal dystrophy is inherited in #{question_items[2]}
pattern?”],
[“Which corneal dystrophy located in #{question_items[1]} is inherited
in #{question_items[2]} pattern?”,“2”],
[“Which corneal dystrophy located in #{question_items[1]} is inherited
in #{question_items[2]} and has an onset in #{question_items[3]}
pattern?”,“2”] ]
]

I am actually randomly selecting one of the lines in the array and
searching it for all occurances of [any number] and then putting the
numbers into a new array.
Would getting the line from the array and replacing the double quotes
with single quotes be an appropriate way of doing this?

Thanks - obviously this isn’t my regular job :slight_smile:

5

Regis d’Aubarede wrote in post #1169883:

Dave C. wrote in post #1169881:

if (/[[0-99]]/) =~ text #Search for [2]
puts text
end

if (/[([0-9]+)]/) =~ text #Search for [2]
puts text
puts $1
end

This does not work as per Joel P.'s response above.
#{question_items[2]} is not there as has already been evaluated.

I did change the format of my regex to your format though. Thank you!

Dave C… MD