Newbie: unexpected result with string.split( regexpr )

ruby-talk
1

Hi all,

My goal is to obtain the filename out of a full pathname.

This is the code:

fullname = "./Dir/file.txt"
array = fullname.split( /.*\// ) # Searches greedyly until the last
slash

The results are:

puts array.length ==> 2
puts array[0] ==> (newline symbol or something??)
puts array[1] ==> file.txt

My questions are:

Why has the array a length of 2?
What is in array[0]?

Best regards,
Francis

2

Because you're splitting, not matching.

    ./Dir/file.txt
    ^^^^^^ <-- What's here is your separator.

There's nothing *before* your separator, so array[0] is an empty
string; array[1] is the filename. There are two ways that are
better:

    fullname = "./Dir/file.txt"
      # Alternate regex form to avoid escaping.
    array = fullname.split(%r{/}, -1)
    puts array.length, array[-1]

        # Best way
    puts File.basename(fullname)

-austin

ยทยทยท

On 7/28/05, francisrammeloo@hotmail.com <francisrammeloo@hotmail.com> wrote:

My goal is to obtain the filename out of a full pathname.

This is the code:
  fullname = "./Dir/file.txt"
    # Searches greedyly until the last slash
  array = fullname.split(/.*\//)

The results are:
  puts array.length ==> 2
  puts array[0] ==> (newline symbol or something??)
  puts array[1] ==> file.txt

My questions are:
  Why has the array a length of 2?
  What is in array[0]?

--
Austin Ziegler * halostatue@gmail.com
               * Alternate: austin@halostatue.ca