Split a string with multiple delimiters in Ruby
Take for instance, I have a string like this:
options = "Cake or pie, ice cream, or pudding"
I want to be able to split the string via or, ,, and , or.
The thing is, is that I have been able to do it, but only by parsing , and , or first, and then splitting each array item at or, flattening the resultant array afterwards as such:
options = options.split(/(?:\s?or\s)*([^,]+)(?:,\s*)*/).reject(&:empty?);
options.each_index {|index| options[index] = options[index].sub("?","").split(" or "); }
The resultant array is as such: ["Cake", "pie", "ice cream", "pudding"]
Is there a more efficient (or easier) way to split my string on those three delimiters?
Answer
What about the following:
options.gsub(/ or /i, ",").split(",").map(&:strip).reject(&:empty?)
- replaces all delimiters but the
, - splits it at
, - trims each characters, since stuff like
ice creamwith a leading space might be left - removes all blank strings