DevTut

# Strings

# Difference between single-quoted and double-quoted String literals

The main difference is that double-quoted String literals support string interpolations and the full set of escape sequences.

For instance, they can include arbitrary Ruby expressions via interpolation:

# Single-quoted strings don't support interpolation
puts 'Now is #{Time.now}'
# Now is #{Time.now}

# Double-quoted strings support interpolation
puts "Now is #{Time.now}"
# Now is 2016-07-21 12:43:04 +0200

Double-quoted strings also support the entire set of escape sequences (opens new window) including "\n", "\t"...

puts 'Hello\nWorld'
# Hello\nWorld

puts "Hello\nWorld"
# Hello
# World

... while single-quoted strings support no escape sequences, baring the minimal set necessary for single-quoted strings to be useful: Literal single quotes and backslashes, '\'' and '\\' respectively.

# Creating a String

Ruby provides several ways to create a String (opens new window) object. The most common way is using single or double quotes to create a "string literal (opens new window)":

s1 = 'Hello'
s2 = "Hello"

The main difference is that double-quoted string literals are a little bit more flexible as they support interpolation and some backslash escape sequences.

There are also several other possible ways to create a string literal using arbitrary string delimiters. An arbitrary string delimiter is a % followed by a matching pair of delimiters:

%(A string)
%{A string}
%<A string>
%|A string|
%!A string!

Finally, you can use the %q and %Q sequence, that are equivalent to ' and "":

puts %q(A string)
# A string
puts %q(Now is #{Time.now})
# Now is #{Time.now}

puts %Q(A string)
# A string
puts %Q(Now is #{Time.now})
# Now is 2016-07-21 12:47:45 +0200

%q and %Q sequences are useful when the string contains either single quotes, double quotes, or a mix of both. In this way, you don't need to escape the content:

%Q(<a href="/profile">User's profile<a>)

You can use several different delimiters, as long as there is a matching pair:

%q(A string)
%q{A string}
%q<A string>
%q|A string|
%q!A string!

# Case manipulation

"string".upcase     # => "STRING"
"STRING".downcase   # => "string"
"String".swapcase   # => "sTRING"
"string".capitalize # => "String"

These four methods do not modify the original receiver. For example,

str = "Hello"
str.upcase # => "HELLO"
puts str   # => "Hello"

There are four similar methods that perform the same actions but modify original receiver.

"string".upcase!     # => "STRING"
"STRING".downcase!   # => "string"
"String".swapcase!   # => "sTRING"
"string".capitalize! # => "String"

For example,

str = "Hello"
str.upcase!  # => "HELLO"
puts str     # => "HELLO"

Notes:

  • prior to Ruby 2.4 these methods do not handle unicode.

# String concatenation

Concatenate strings with the + operator:

s1 = "Hello"
s2 = " "
s3 = "World"

puts s1 + s2 + s3
# => Hello World

s = s1 + s2 + s3
puts s
# => Hello World

Or with the << operator:

s = 'Hello'
s << ' '
s << 'World'
puts s
# => Hello World

Note that the << operator modifies the object on the left hand side.

You also can multiply strings, e.g.

"wow" * 3
# => "wowwowwow"

# Splitting a String

String#split splits a String into an Array, based on a delimiter.

"alpha,beta".split(",")
# => ["alpha", "beta"]

An empty String results into an empty Array:

"".split(",")
# => []

A non-matching delimiter results in an Array containing a single item:

"alpha,beta".split(".")
# => ["alpha,beta"]

You can also split a string using regular expressions:

"alpha, beta,gamma".split(/, ?/)
# => ["alpha", "beta", "gamma"]

The delimiter is optional, by default a string is split on whitespace:

"alpha beta".split
# => ["alpha", "beta"]

# Positioning strings

In Ruby, strings can be left-justified, right-justified or centered

To left-justify string, use the ljust method. This takes in two parameters, an integer representing the number of characters of the new string and a string, representing the pattern to be filled.

If the integer is greater than the length of the original string, the new string will be left-justified with the optional string parameter taking the remaining space. If the string parameter is not given, the string will be padded with spaces.

str ="abcd"
str.ljust(4)          => "abcd"
str.ljust(10)         => "abcd      "

To right-justify a string, use the rjust method. This takes in two parameters, an integer representing the number of characters of the new string and a string, representing the pattern to be filled.

If the integer is greater than the length of the original string, the new string will be right-justified with the optional string parameter taking the remaining space. If the string parameter is not given, the string will be padded with spaces.

str = "abcd"
str.rjust(4)          => "abcd"
str.rjust(10)         => "      abcd"

To center a string, use the center method. This takes in two parameters, an integer representing the width of the new string and a string, which the original string will be padded with. The string will be aligned to the center.

str = "abcd"
str.center(4)          => "abcd"
str.center(10)         => "   abcd   "

# Joining Strings

Array#join joins an Array into a String, based on a delimiter:

["alpha", "beta"].join(",")
# => "alpha,beta"

The delimiter is optional, and defaults to an empty String.

["alpha", "beta"].join
# => "alphabeta"

An empty Array results in an empty String, no matter which delimiter is used.

[].join(",")
# => ""

# String starts with

To find if a string starts with a pattern, the start_with? method comes in handy

str = "zebras are cool"
str.start_with?("zebras")      => true

You can also check the position of the pattern with index

str = "zebras are cool"
str.index("zebras").zero?      => true

# String interpolation

The double-quoted delimiter " and %Q sequence supports string interpolation using #{ruby_expression}:

puts "Now is #{Time.now}"
# Now is Now is 2016-07-21 12:47:45 +0200

puts %Q(Now is #{Time.now})
# Now is Now is 2016-07-21 12:47:45 +0200

# String ends with

To find if a string ends with a pattern, the end_with? method comes in handy

str = "I like pineapples"
str.end_with?("pineaaples")      => false

# Multiline strings

The easiest way to create a multiline string is to just use multiple lines between quotation marks:

address = "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal."

The main problem with that technique is that if the string includes a quotation, it'll break the string syntax. To work around the problem, you can use a heredoc (opens new window) instead:

puts <<-RAVEN
  Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, 
  Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— 
      While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, 
  As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 
  "'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door— 
              Only this and nothing more." 
  RAVEN

Ruby supports shell-style here documents with <<EOT, but the terminating text must start the line. That screws up code indentation, so there's not a lot of reason to use that style. Unfortunately, the string will have indentations depending no how the code itself is indented.

Ruby 2.3 solves the problem by introducing <<~ which strips out excess leading spaces:

def build_email(address)
  return (<<~EMAIL)
    TO: #{address}

    To Whom It May Concern:

    Please stop playing the bagpipes at sunrise!
                     
    Regards,
    Your neighbor               
  EMAIL
end

Percent Strings (opens new window) also work to create multiline strings:

%q(
HAMLET        Do you see yonder cloud that's almost in shape of a camel?
POLONIUS        By the mass, and 'tis like a camel, indeed.
HAMLET        Methinks it is like a weasel.
POLONIUS        It is backed like a weasel.
HAMLET        Or like a whale?
POLONIUS        Very like a whale
)

There are a few ways to avoid interpolation and escape sequences:

  • Single quote instead of double quote: `'\n is a carriage return.'`
  • Lower case `q` in a percent string: `%q[#{not-a-variable}]`
  • Single quote the terminal string in a heredoc: 
    <<-'CODE'
   puts 'Hello world!'
CODE

    • # Formatted strings

    Ruby can inject an array of values into a string by replacing any placeholders with the values from the supplied array.

    "Hello %s, my name is %s!" % ['World', 'br3nt']
# => Hello World, my name is br3nt!

    The place holders are represented by two %s and the values are supplied by the array ['Hello', 'br3nt']. The % operator instructs the string to inject the values of the array.

    # String character replacements

    The tr method returns a copy of a string where the characters of the first argument are replaced by the characters of the second argument.

    "string".tr('r', 'l') # => "stling"

    To replace only the first occurrence of a pattern with with another expression use the sub method

    "string ring".sub('r', 'l') # => "stling ring"

    If you would like to replace all occurrences of a pattern with that expression use gsub

    "string ring".gsub('r','l') # => "stling ling"

    To delete characters, pass in an empty string for the second parameter

    You can also use regular expressions in all these methods.

    It's important to note that these methods will only return a new copy of a string and won't modify the string in place. To do that, you need to use the tr!, sub! and gsub! methods respectively.

    # Understanding the data in a string

    In Ruby, a string is just a sequence of bytes (opens new window) along with the name of an encoding (such as UTF-8, US-ASCII, ASCII-8BIT) that specifies how you might interpret those bytes as characters.

    Ruby strings can be used to hold text (basically a sequence of characters), in which case the UTF-8 encoding is usually used.

    "abc".bytes  # => [97, 98, 99]
"abc".encoding.name  # => "UTF-8"

    Ruby strings can also be used to hold binary data (a sequence of bytes), in which case the ASCII-8BIT encoding is usually used.

    [42].pack("i").encoding  # => "ASCII-8BIT"

    It is possible for the sequence of bytes in a string to not match the encoding, resulting in errors if you try to use the string.

    "\xFF \xFF".valid_encoding? # => false
"\xFF \xFF".split(' ')      # ArgumentError: invalid byte sequence in UTF-8

    # String Substitution

    p "This is %s" % "foo"
# => "This is foo"

p "%s %s %s" % ["foo", "bar", "baz"]
# => "foo bar baz"

p "%{foo} == %{foo}" % {:foo => "foo" }
# => "foo == foo"

    See String % (opens new window) docs and Kernel::sprintf (opens new window) for more details.

    # Syntax

    • 'A string' // creates a string via single-quoted literal
    • "A string" // creates a string via double-quoted literal
    • String.new("A string")
    • %q(A string) // alternative syntax for creating single quoted strings
    • %Q(A string) // alternative syntax for creating double quoted strings

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