http://snippets.dzone.com/posts Sat, 26 Jul 2008 23:26:16 GMT DZone Snippets: alternation code http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/5068 The following code from an irb session highlights optional pattern matching using an OR operator, represented as a bar (|). <br /> <br /><code> <br />irb(main):003:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/chick|sleeping/] <br />=> "chick" <br />irb(main):004:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/sleeping/] <br />=> "sleeping" <br />irb(main):005:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/sleeping|chicken/] <br />=> "chicken" <br />irb(main):006:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/sleeping|are|chicken/] <br />=> "chicken" <br />irb(main):007:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/sleeping|are/] <br />=> "are" <br />irb(main):008:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/[^sleeping|are]/] <br />=> "c" <br />irb(main):009:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/[^sleeping|are].[a-z]*\s/] <br />=> "chickens " <br />irb(main):011:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/[^chickens|are].[a-z]*\s/] <br />=> " are " <br />irb(main):015:0> "chickens are sleeping"[/[sleeping|are].[a-z]*\s/] <br />=> "ickens " <br />irb(main):020:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/are|sleeping/] <br />=> "are" <br />irb(main):026:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/(are|sleeping)../] <br />=> "ared " <br />irb(main):023:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/\b(are|sleeping)\b/] <br />=> "are" <br />irb(main):025:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/\b(are|sleeping)\b.../] <br />=> "are sl" <br />irb(main):032:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/(monkeys|dancing)|(sheep|laughing)/] <br />=> nil <br />irb(main):033:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/(monkeys|dancing)|(sheep|laughing)|(chickens)/] <br />=> "chickens" <br />irb(main):034:0> "scared chickens are sleeping"[/(monkeys|sleeping)|(sheep|laughing)|(chickens)/] <br />=> "chickens" <br /> <br /></code> Fri, 01 Feb 2008 10:19:20 GMT http://snippets.dzone.com/posts/show/5068 jrobertson (James Robertson)