CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rubyregex
Jonathan
Jonathan

Reputation: 1467

Selecting Content in quotes using regex

If I have:

    ["eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e", "f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4", 
     "19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5", "83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"]

(where the entire thing is a string)

Is there a simple regular expression that I can use to select content within the quotes (quotes included)?

Since the above comes out as a string. I want to use regex to select out each id within the quotes (along with the quotes) and store them into a ruby array.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 79

Answers (3)

the Tin Man
the Tin Man

Reputation: 160551

Why are you getting the string in that format? It looks like JSON output, which, if it is, should be parsed by the JSON module.

require 'json'
require 'pp'

foo = [
  "eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e",
  "f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4",
  "19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5",
  "83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"
]

foo.to_json
=> "[\"eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e\",\"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4\",\"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5\",\"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5\"]"

That's probably the string you're getting. If you parse it using the JSON parser, you'll get back a Ruby array:

pp JSON[ foo.to_json ]
=> ["eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e",
"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4",
"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5",
"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"]

Upvotes: 1

maerics
maerics

Reputation: 156414

Try using the String#scan method with the regular expression /"[^"]+"/:

ids = str.scan(/"[^"]+"/) # => [ "eaacbf7e-...", "f9e52e06-...", ...]
puts ids
"eaacbf7e-37b3-509e-b2d1-ddce7f0e1f6e"
"f9e52e06-697a-57af-9566-d05fabb001a4"
"19edb822-eccb-5289-8fee-a39cdda66cd5"
"83d3ad63-b468-5a1e-ba6c-6b69eb4a3dc5"

That expression breaks down like so:

str.scan(/"[^"]+"/)
#         │├──┘│└─ Another literal quotation mark (").
#         ││   └─ Match one or more of the previous thing.
#         │└─ A class matching any character except (^) quotation marks.
#         └─ A literal quotation mark (").

Upvotes: 2

Anirudha
Anirudha

Reputation: 32787

Simply use this regex

"[^"]*"

[^"]* says match any character except " i.e [^"] 0 to many times i.e *

Upvotes: 3

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