String

Class

A String object holds and manipulates an arbitrary sequence of bytes, typically representing characters. String objects may be created using String::new or as literals.

Because of aliasing issues, users of strings should be aware of the methods that modify the contents of a String object. Typically, methods with names ending in “!” modify their receiver, while those without a “!” return a new String. However, there are exceptions, such as String#[]=.

Class Methods

String.new(str="") → new_str

String.new(str="", encoding: enc) → new_str

String.new(str="", capacity: size) → new_str
::

Returns a new string object containing a copy of str.

The optional enc argument specifies the encoding of the new string. If not specified, the encoding of str (or ASCII-8BIT, if str is not specified) is used.

The optional size argument specifies the size of internal buffer. This may improve performance, when the string will be concatenated many times (and call many realloc).

String.try_convert(obj) → string or nil
::

Try to convert obj into a String, using to_str method. Returns converted string or nil if obj cannot be converted for any reason.

String.try_convert("str")     #=> "str"
String.try_convert(/re/)      #=> nil
Instance Methods

str % arg → new_str
#

Format—Uses str as a format specification, and returns the result of applying it to arg. If the format specification contains more than one substitution, then arg must be an Array or Hash containing the values to be substituted. See Kernel::sprintf for details of the format string.

"%05d" % 123                              #=> "00123"
"%-5s: %08x" % [ "ID", self.object_id ]   #=> "ID   : 200e14d6"
"foo = %{foo}" % { :foo => 'bar' }        #=> "foo = bar"

str * integer → new_str
#

Copy — Returns a new String containing integer copies of the receiver. integer must be greater than or equal to 0.

"Ho! " * 3   #=> "Ho! Ho! Ho! "
"Ho! " * 0   #=> ""

str + other_str → new_str
#

Concatenation—Returns a new String containing other_str concatenated to str.

"Hello from " + self.to_s   #=> "Hello from main"

+str → str (mutable)
#

If the string is frozen, then return duplicated mutable string.

If the string is not frozen, then return the string itself.

-str → str (frozen)
#

If the string is frozen, then return the string itself.

If the string is not frozen, then duplicate the string freeze it and return it.

str << integer → str

str.concat(integer1, integer2,...) → str

str << obj → str

str.concat(obj1, obj2,...) → str
#

Append—Concatenates the given object to str. If the object is an Integer, it is considered as a codepoint, and is converted to a character before concatenation. Concat can take multiple arguments. All the arguments are concatenated in order.

a = "hello "
a << "world"   #=> "hello world"
a.concat(33)   #=> "hello world!"
a              #=> "hello world!"

b = "sn"
b.concat(b, b)    #=> "snsnsn"

string <=> other_string → -1, 0, +1 or nil
#

Comparison—Returns -1, 0, +1 or nil depending on whether string is less than, equal to, or greater than other_string.

nil is returned if the two values are incomparable.

If the strings are of different lengths, and the strings are equal when compared up to the shortest length, then the longer string is considered greater than the shorter one.

<=> is the basis for the methods <, <=, >, >=, and between?, included from module Comparable. The method String#== does not use Comparable#==.

"abcdef" <=> "abcde"     #=> 1
"abcdef" <=> "abcdef"    #=> 0
"abcdef" <=> "abcdefg"   #=> -1
"abcdef" <=> "ABCDEF"    #=> 1
"abcdef" <=> 1           #=> nil

str == obj → true or false
#

Equality—Returns whether str == obj, similar to Object#==.

If obj is not an instance of String but responds to to_str, then the two strings are compared using obj.==.

Otherwise, returns similarly to String#eql?, comparing length and content.

str === obj → true or false
#
An alias for ==

str =~ obj → integer or nil
#

Match—If obj is a Regexp, use it as a pattern to match against str,and returns the position the match starts, or nil if there is no match. Otherwise, invokes obj.=~, passing str as an argument. The default =~ in Object returns nil.

Note: str =~ regexp is not the same as regexp =~ str. Strings captured from named capture groups are assigned to local variables only in the second case.

"cat o' 9 tails" =~ /\d/   #=> 7
"cat o' 9 tails" =~ 9      #=> nil

str[index] → new_str or nil

str[start, length] → new_str or nil

str[range] → new_str or nil

str[regexp] → new_str or nil

str[regexp, capture] → new_str or nil

str[match_str] → new_str or nil
#

Element Reference — If passed a single index, returns a substring of one character at that index. If passed a start index and a length, returns a substring containing length characters starting at the start index. If passed a range, its beginning and end are interpreted as offsets delimiting the substring to be returned.

In these three cases, if an index is negative, it is counted from the end of the string. For the start and range cases the starting index is just before a character and an index matching the string’s size. Additionally, an empty string is returned when the starting index for a character range is at the end of the string.

Returns nil if the initial index falls outside the string or the length is negative.

If a Regexp is supplied, the matching portion of the string is returned. If a capture follows the regular expression, which may be a capture group index or name, follows the regular expression that component of the MatchData is returned instead.

If a match_str is given, that string is returned if it occurs in the string.

Returns nil if the regular expression does not match or the match string cannot be found.

a = "hello there"

a[1]                   #=> "e"
a[2, 3]                #=> "llo"
a[2..3]                #=> "ll"

a[-3, 2]               #=> "er"
a[7..-2]               #=> "her"
a[-4..-2]              #=> "her"
a[-2..-4]              #=> ""

a[11, 0]               #=> ""
a[11]                  #=> nil
a[12, 0]               #=> nil
a[12..-1]              #=> nil

a[/[aeiou](.)\1/]      #=> "ell"
a[/[aeiou](.)\1/, 0]   #=> "ell"
a[/[aeiou](.)\1/, 1]   #=> "l"
a[/[aeiou](.)\1/, 2]   #=> nil

a[/(?<vowel>[aeiou])(?<non_vowel>[^aeiou])/, "non_vowel"] #=> "l"
a[/(?<vowel>[aeiou])(?<non_vowel>[^aeiou])/, "vowel"]     #=> "e"

a["lo"]                #=> "lo"
a["bye"]               #=> nil

str[integer] = new_str

str[integer, integer] = new_str

str[range] = aString

str[regexp] = new_str

str[regexp, integer] = new_str

str[regexp, name] = new_str

str[other_str] = new_str
#

Element Assignment—Replaces some or all of the content of str. The portion of the string affected is determined using the same criteria as String#[]. If the replacement string is not the same length as the text it is replacing, the string will be adjusted accordingly. If the regular expression or string is used as the index doesn’t match a position in the string, IndexError is raised. If the regular expression form is used, the optional second Integer allows you to specify which portion of the match to replace (effectively using the MatchData indexing rules. The forms that take an Integer will raise an IndexError if the value is out of range; the Range form will raise a RangeError, and the Regexp and String will raise an IndexError on negative match.

str.ascii_only? → true or false
#

Returns true for a string which has only ASCII characters.

"abc".force_encoding("UTF-8").ascii_only?          #=> true
"abc\u{6666}".force_encoding("UTF-8").ascii_only?  #=> false

str.b → str
#

Returns a copied string whose encoding is ASCII-8BIT.

block_scanf(fstr) { |current_match| ... }
#

Scans the current string until the match is exhausted yielding each match as it is encountered in the string. A block is not necessary as the results will simply be aggregated into the final array.

"123 456".block_scanf("%d")
# => [123, 456]

If a block is given, the value from that is returned from the yield is added to an output array.

"123 456".block_scanf("%d) do |digit,| # the ',' unpacks the Array
  digit + 100
end
# => [223, 556]

See Scanf for details on creating a format string.

You will need to require ‘scanf’ to use String#block_scanf

str.bytes → an_array
#

Returns an array of bytes in str. This is a shorthand for str.each_byte.to_a.

If a block is given, which is a deprecated form, works the same as each_byte.

str.bytesize → integer
#

Returns the length of str in bytes.

"\x80\u3042".bytesize  #=> 4
"hello".bytesize       #=> 5

str.byteslice(integer) → new_str or nil

str.byteslice(integer, integer) → new_str or nil

str.byteslice(range) → new_str or nil
#

Byte Reference—If passed a single Integer, returns a substring of one byte at that position. If passed two Integer objects, returns a substring starting at the offset given by the first, and a length given by the second. If given a Range, a substring containing bytes at offsets given by the range is returned. In all three cases, if an offset is negative, it is counted from the end of str. Returns nil if the initial offset falls outside the string, the length is negative, or the beginning of the range is greater than the end. The encoding of the resulted string keeps original encoding.

"hello".byteslice(1)     #=> "e"
"hello".byteslice(-1)    #=> "o"
"hello".byteslice(1, 2)  #=> "el"
"\x80\u3042".byteslice(1, 3) #=> "\u3042"
"\x03\u3042\xff".byteslice(1..3) #=> "\u3042"

str.capitalize → new_str

str.capitalize([options]) → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with the first character converted to uppercase and the remainder to lowercase.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

"hello".capitalize    #=> "Hello"
"HELLO".capitalize    #=> "Hello"
"123ABC".capitalize   #=> "123abc"

str.capitalize! → str or nil

str.capitalize!([options]) → str or nil
#

Modifies str by converting the first character to uppercase and the remainder to lowercase. Returns nil if no changes are made.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

a = "hello"
a.capitalize!   #=> "Hello"
a               #=> "Hello"
a.capitalize!   #=> nil

str.casecmp(other_str) → -1, 0, +1 or nil
#

Case-insensitive version of String#<=>. Currently, case-insensitivity only works on characters A-Z/a-z, not all of Unicode. This is different from casecmp?.

"abcdef".casecmp("abcde")     #=> 1
"aBcDeF".casecmp("abcdef")    #=> 0
"abcdef".casecmp("abcdefg")   #=> -1
"abcdef".casecmp("ABCDEF")    #=> 0

str.casecmp?(other_str) → true, false, or nil
#

Returns true if str and other_other_str are equal after Unicode case folding, false if they are not equal, and nil if other_str is not a string.

"abcdef".casecmp?("abcde")     #=> false
"aBcDeF".casecmp?("abcdef")    #=> true
"abcdef".casecmp?("abcdefg")   #=> false
"abcdef".casecmp?("ABCDEF")    #=> true
"\u{e4 f6 fc}".casecmp?("\u{c4 d6 dc}") #=> true

str.center(width, padstr=' ') → new_str
#

Centers str in width. If width is greater than the length of str, returns a new String of length width with str centered and padded with padstr; otherwise, returns str.

"hello".center(4)         #=> "hello"
"hello".center(20)        #=> "       hello        "
"hello".center(20, '123') #=> "1231231hello12312312"

str.chars → an_array
#

Returns an array of characters in str. This is a shorthand for str.each_char.to_a.

If a block is given, which is a deprecated form, works the same as each_char.

str.chomp(separator=$/) → new_str
#

Returns a new String with the given record separator removed from the end of str (if present). If $/ has not been changed from the default Ruby record separator, then chomp also removes carriage return characters (that is it will remove \n, \r, and \r\n). If $/ is an empty string, it will remove all trailing newlines from the string.

"hello".chomp                #=> "hello"
"hello\n".chomp              #=> "hello"
"hello\r\n".chomp            #=> "hello"
"hello\n\r".chomp            #=> "hello\n"
"hello\r".chomp              #=> "hello"
"hello \n there".chomp       #=> "hello \n there"
"hello".chomp("llo")         #=> "he"
"hello\r\n\r\n".chomp('')    #=> "hello"
"hello\r\n\r\r\n".chomp('')  #=> "hello\r\n\r"

str.chomp!(separator=$/) → str or nil
#

Modifies str in place as described for String#chomp, returning str, or nil if no modifications were made.

str.chop → new_str
#

Returns a new String with the last character removed. If the string ends with \r\n, both characters are removed. Applying chop to an empty string returns an empty string. String#chomp is often a safer alternative, as it leaves the string unchanged if it doesn’t end in a record separator.

"string\r\n".chop   #=> "string"
"string\n\r".chop   #=> "string\n"
"string\n".chop     #=> "string"
"string".chop       #=> "strin"
"x".chop.chop       #=> ""

str.chop! → str or nil
#

Processes str as for String#chop, returning str, or nil if str is the empty string. See also String#chomp!.

string.chr → string
#

Returns a one-character string at the beginning of the string.

a = "abcde"
a.chr    #=> "a"

string.clear → string
#

Makes string empty.

a = "abcde"
a.clear    #=> ""

str.codepoints → an_array
#

Returns an array of the Integer ordinals of the characters in str. This is a shorthand for str.each_codepoint.to_a.

If a block is given, which is a deprecated form, works the same as each_codepoint.

str << integer → str

str.concat(integer1, integer2,...) → str

str << obj → str

str.concat(obj1, obj2,...) → str
#

Append—Concatenates the given object to str. If the object is an Integer, it is considered as a codepoint, and is converted to a character before concatenation. Concat can take multiple arguments. All the arguments are concatenated in order.

a = "hello "
a << "world"   #=> "hello world"
a.concat(33)   #=> "hello world!"
a              #=> "hello world!"

b = "sn"
b.concat(b, b)    #=> "snsnsn"

str.count([other_str]+) → integer
#

Each other_str parameter defines a set of characters to count. The intersection of these sets defines the characters to count in str. Any other_str that starts with a caret ^ is negated. The sequence c1-c2 means all characters between c1 and c2. The backslash character \ can be used to escape ^ or - and is otherwise ignored unless it appears at the end of a sequence or the end of a other_str.

a = "hello world"
a.count "lo"                   #=> 5
a.count "lo", "o"              #=> 2
a.count "hello", "^l"          #=> 4
a.count "ej-m"                 #=> 4

"hello^world".count "\\^aeiou" #=> 4
"hello-world".count "a\\-eo"   #=> 4

c = "hello world\\r\\n"
c.count "\\"                   #=> 2
c.count "\\A"                  #=> 0
c.count "X-\\w"                #=> 3

str.crypt(salt_str) → new_str
#

Applies a one-way cryptographic hash to str by invoking the standard library function crypt(3) with the given salt string. While the format and the result are system and implementation dependent, using a salt matching the regular expression \A[a-zA-Z0-9./]{2} should be valid and safe on any platform, in which only the first two characters are significant.

This method is for use in system specific scripts, so if you want a cross-platform hash function consider using Digest or OpenSSL instead.

str.delete([other_str]+) → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with all characters in the intersection of its arguments deleted. Uses the same rules for building the set of characters as String#count.

"hello".delete "l","lo"        #=> "heo"
"hello".delete "lo"            #=> "he"
"hello".delete "aeiou", "^e"   #=> "hell"
"hello".delete "ej-m"          #=> "ho"

str.delete!([other_str]+) → str or nil
#

Performs a delete operation in place, returning str, or nil if str was not modified.

str.downcase → new_str

str.downcase([options]) → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with all uppercase letters replaced with their lowercase counterparts. Which letters exactly are replaced, and by which other letters, depends on the presence or absence of options, and on the encoding of the string.

The meaning of the options is as follows:

No option

Full Unicode case mapping, suitable for most languages (see :turkic and :lithuanian options below for exceptions). Context-dependent case mapping as described in Table 3-14 of the Unicode standard is currently not supported.

:ascii

Only the ASCII region, i.e. the characters “A” to “Z” and “a” to “z”, are affected. This option cannot be combined with any other option.

:turkic

Full Unicode case mapping, adapted for Turkic languages (Turkish, Aserbaijani,…). This means that upper case I is mapped to lower case dotless i, and so on.

:lithuanian

Currently, just full Unicode case mapping. In the future, full Unicode case mapping adapted for Lithuanian (keeping the dot on the lower case i even if there is an accent on top).

:fold

Only available on downcase and downcase!. Unicode case folding, which is more far-reaching than Unicode case mapping. This option currently cannot be combined with any other option (i.e. there is currenty no variant for turkic languages).

Please note that several assumptions that are valid for ASCII-only case conversions do not hold for more general case conversions. For example, the length of the result may not be the same as the length of the input (neither in characters nor in bytes), some roundtrip assumptions (e.g. str.downcase == str.upcase.downcase) may not apply, and Unicode normalization (i.e. String#unicode_normalize) is not necessarily maintained by case mapping operations.

Non-ASCII case mapping/folding is currently supported for UTF-8, UTF-16BE/LE, UTF-32BE/LE, and ISO-8859-1~16 Strings/Symbols. This support will be extended to other encodings.

"hEllO".downcase   #=> "hello"

str.downcase! → str or nil

str.downcase!([options]) → str or nil
#

Downcases the contents of str, returning nil if no changes were made.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

str.dump → new_str
#

Produces a version of str with all non-printing characters replaced by \nnn notation and all special characters escaped.

"hello \n ''".dump  #=> "\"hello \\n ''\""

str.each_byte {|integer| block } → str

str.each_byte → an_enumerator
#

Passes each byte in str to the given block, or returns an enumerator if no block is given.

"hello".each_byte {|c| print c, ' ' }

produces:

104 101 108 108 111

str.each_char {|cstr| block } → str

str.each_char → an_enumerator
#

Passes each character in str to the given block, or returns an enumerator if no block is given.

"hello".each_char {|c| print c, ' ' }

produces:

h e l l o

str.each_codepoint {|integer| block } → str

str.each_codepoint → an_enumerator
#

Passes the Integer ordinal of each character in str, also known as a codepoint when applied to Unicode strings to the given block.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

"hello\u0639".each_codepoint {|c| print c, ' ' }

produces:

104 101 108 108 111 1593

str.each_line(separator=$/) {|substr| block } → str

str.each_line(separator=$/) → an_enumerator
#

Splits str using the supplied parameter as the record separator ($/ by default), passing each substring in turn to the supplied block. If a zero-length record separator is supplied, the string is split into paragraphs delimited by multiple successive newlines.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

print "Example one\n"
"hello\nworld".each_line {|s| p s}
print "Example two\n"
"hello\nworld".each_line('l') {|s| p s}
print "Example three\n"
"hello\n\n\nworld".each_line('') {|s| p s}

produces:

Example one
"hello\n"
"world"
Example two
"hel"
"l"
"o\nworl"
"d"
Example three
"hello\n\n\n"
"world"

str.empty? → true or false
#

Returns true if str has a length of zero.

"hello".empty?   #=> false
" ".empty?       #=> false
"".empty?        #=> true

str.encode(encoding [, options] ) → str

str.encode(dst_encoding, src_encoding [, options] ) → str

str.encode([options]) → str
#

The first form returns a copy of str transcoded to encoding encoding. The second form returns a copy of str transcoded from src_encoding to dst_encoding. The last form returns a copy of str transcoded to Encoding.default_internal.

By default, the first and second form raise Encoding::UndefinedConversionError for characters that are undefined in the destination encoding, and Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError for invalid byte sequences in the source encoding. The last form by default does not raise exceptions but uses replacement strings.

The options Hash gives details for conversion and can have the following keys:

:invalid

If the value is :replace, encode replaces invalid byte sequences in str with the replacement character. The default is to raise the Encoding::InvalidByteSequenceError exception

:undef

If the value is :replace, encode replaces characters which are undefined in the destination encoding with the replacement character. The default is to raise the Encoding::UndefinedConversionError.

:replace

Sets the replacement string to the given value. The default replacement string is “uFFFD” for Unicode encoding forms, and “?” otherwise.

:fallback

Sets the replacement string by the given object for undefined character. The object should be a Hash, a Proc, a Method, or an object which has [] method. Its key is an undefined character encoded in the source encoding of current transcoder. Its value can be any encoding until it can be converted into the destination encoding of the transcoder.

:xml

The value must be :text or :attr. If the value is :text encode replaces undefined characters with their (upper-case hexadecimal) numeric character references. ‘&’, ‘<’, and ‘>’ are converted to “&amp;”, “&lt;”, and “&gt;”, respectively. If the value is :attr, encode also quotes the replacement result (using ‘“’), and replaces ‘”’ with “&quot;”.

:cr_newline

Replaces LF (“n”) with CR (“r”) if value is true.

:crlf_newline

Replaces LF (“n”) with CRLF (“rn”) if value is true.

:universal_newline

Replaces CRLF (“rn”) and CR (“r”) with LF (“n”) if value is true.

str.encode!(encoding [, options] ) → str

str.encode!(dst_encoding, src_encoding [, options] ) → str
#

The first form transcodes the contents of str from str.encoding to encoding. The second form transcodes the contents of str from src_encoding to dst_encoding. The options Hash gives details for conversion. See String#encode for details. Returns the string even if no changes were made.

obj.encoding → encoding
#

Returns the Encoding object that represents the encoding of obj.

str.end_with?([suffixes]+) → true or false
#

Returns true if str ends with one of the suffixes given.

"hello".end_with?("ello")               #=> true

# returns true if one of the +suffixes+ matches.
"hello".end_with?("heaven", "ello")     #=> true
"hello".end_with?("heaven", "paradise") #=> false

str.eql?(other) → true or false
#

Two strings are equal if they have the same length and content.

str.force_encoding(encoding) → str
#

Changes the encoding to encoding and returns self.

freeze
#
No documentation available

str.getbyte(index) → 0 .. 255
#

returns the indexth byte as an integer.

str.gsub(pattern, replacement) → new_str

str.gsub(pattern, hash) → new_str

str.gsub(pattern) {|match| block } → new_str

str.gsub(pattern) → enumerator
#

Returns a copy of str with the all occurrences of pattern substituted for the second argument. The pattern is typically a Regexp; if given as a String, any regular expression metacharacters it contains will be interpreted literally, e.g. '\\d' will match a backslash followed by ‘d’, instead of a digit.

If replacement is a String it will be substituted for the matched text. It may contain back-references to the pattern’s capture groups of the form \\d, where d is a group number, or \\k<n>, where n is a group name. If it is a double-quoted string, both back-references must be preceded by an additional backslash. However, within replacement the special match variables, such as $&, will not refer to the current match.

If the second argument is a Hash, and the matched text is one of its keys, the corresponding value is the replacement string.

In the block form, the current match string is passed in as a parameter, and variables such as $1, $2, $`, $&, and $' will be set appropriately. The value returned by the block will be substituted for the match on each call.

The result inherits any tainting in the original string or any supplied replacement string.

When neither a block nor a second argument is supplied, an Enumerator is returned.

"hello".gsub(/[aeiou]/, '*')                  #=> "h*ll*"
"hello".gsub(/([aeiou])/, '<\1>')             #=> "h<e>ll<o>"
"hello".gsub(/./) {|s| s.ord.to_s + ' '}      #=> "104 101 108 108 111 "
"hello".gsub(/(?<foo>[aeiou])/, '{\k<foo>}')  #=> "h{e}ll{o}"
'hello'.gsub(/[eo]/, 'e' => 3, 'o' => '*')    #=> "h3ll*"

str.gsub!(pattern, replacement) → str or nil

str.gsub!(pattern, hash) → str or nil

str.gsub!(pattern) {|match| block } → str or nil

str.gsub!(pattern) → an_enumerator
#

Performs the substitutions of String#gsub in place, returning str, or nil if no substitutions were performed. If no block and no replacement is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

str.hash → integer
#

Return a hash based on the string’s length, content and encoding.

See also Object#hash.

str.hex → integer
#

Treats leading characters from str as a string of hexadecimal digits (with an optional sign and an optional 0x) and returns the corresponding number. Zero is returned on error.

"0x0a".hex     #=> 10
"-1234".hex    #=> -4660
"0".hex        #=> 0
"wombat".hex   #=> 0

str.include? other_str → true or false
#

Returns true if str contains the given string or character.

"hello".include? "lo"   #=> true
"hello".include? "ol"   #=> false
"hello".include? ?h     #=> true

str.index(substring [, offset]) → integer or nil

str.index(regexp [, offset]) → integer or nil
#

Returns the index of the first occurrence of the given substring or pattern (regexp) in str. Returns nil if not found. If the second parameter is present, it specifies the position in the string to begin the search.

"hello".index('e')             #=> 1
"hello".index('lo')            #=> 3
"hello".index('a')             #=> nil
"hello".index(?e)              #=> 1
"hello".index(/[aeiou]/, -3)   #=> 4

str.replace(other_str) -> str
#

Replaces the contents and taintedness of str with the corresponding values in other_str.

s = "hello"         #=> "hello"
s.replace "world"   #=> "world"

str.insert(index, other_str) → str
#

Inserts other_str before the character at the given index, modifying str. Negative indices count from the end of the string, and insert after the given character. The intent is insert aString so that it starts at the given index.

"abcd".insert(0, 'X')    #=> "Xabcd"
"abcd".insert(3, 'X')    #=> "abcXd"
"abcd".insert(4, 'X')    #=> "abcdX"
"abcd".insert(-3, 'X')   #=> "abXcd"
"abcd".insert(-1, 'X')   #=> "abcdX"

str.inspect → string
#

Returns a printable version of str, surrounded by quote marks, with special characters escaped.

str = "hello"
str[3] = "\b"
str.inspect       #=> "\"hel\\bo\""

str.intern → symbol
#

Returns the Symbol corresponding to str, creating the symbol if it did not previously exist. See Symbol#id2name.

"Koala".intern         #=> :Koala
s = 'cat'.to_sym       #=> :cat
s == :cat              #=> true
s = '@cat'.to_sym      #=> :@cat
s == :@cat             #=> true

This can also be used to create symbols that cannot be represented using the :xxx notation.

'cat and dog'.to_sym   #=> :"cat and dog"

String#iseuc => true or false
#

Returns whether self‘s encoding is EUC-JP or not.

String#isjis => true or false
#

Returns whether self‘s encoding is ISO-2022-JP or not.

String#issjis => true or false
#

Returns whether self‘s encoding is Shift_JIS or not.

String#isutf8 => true or false
#

Returns whether self‘s encoding is UTF-8 or not.

String#kconv(to_enc, from_enc)
#

Convert self to to_enc. to_enc and from_enc are given as constants of Kconv or Encoding objects.

str.length → integer
#

Returns the character length of str.

str.lines(separator=$/) → an_array
#

Returns an array of lines in str split using the supplied record separator ($/ by default). This is a shorthand for str.each_line(separator).to_a.

If a block is given, which is a deprecated form, works the same as each_line.

str.ljust(integer, padstr=' ') → new_str
#

If integer is greater than the length of str, returns a new String of length integer with str left justified and padded with padstr; otherwise, returns str.

"hello".ljust(4)            #=> "hello"
"hello".ljust(20)           #=> "hello               "
"hello".ljust(20, '1234')   #=> "hello123412341234123"

str.lstrip → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with leading whitespace removed. See also String#rstrip and String#strip.

Refer to strip for the definition of whitespace.

"  hello  ".lstrip   #=> "hello  "
"hello".lstrip       #=> "hello"

str.lstrip! → self or nil
#

Removes leading whitespace from str, returning nil if no change was made. See also String#rstrip! and String#strip!.

Refer to strip for the definition of whitespace.

"  hello  ".lstrip!  #=> "hello  "
"hello  ".lstrip!    #=> nil
"hello".lstrip!      #=> nil

str.match(pattern) → matchdata or nil

str.match(pattern, pos) → matchdata or nil
#

Converts pattern to a Regexp (if it isn’t already one), then invokes its match method on str. If the second parameter is present, it specifies the position in the string to begin the search.

'hello'.match('(.)\1')      #=> #<MatchData "ll" 1:"l">
'hello'.match('(.)\1')[0]   #=> "ll"
'hello'.match(/(.)\1/)[0]   #=> "ll"
'hello'.match('xx')         #=> nil

If a block is given, invoke the block with MatchData if match succeed, so that you can write

str.match(pat) {|m| ...}

instead of

if m = str.match(pat)
  ...
end

The return value is a value from block execution in this case.

str.match?(pattern) → true or false

str.match?(pattern, pos) → true or false
#

Converts pattern to a Regexp (if it isn’t already one), then returns a true or false indicates whether the regexp is matched str or not without updating $~ and other related variables. If the second parameter is present, it specifies the position in the string to begin the search.

"Ruby".match?(/R.../)    #=> true
"Ruby".match?(/R.../, 1) #=> false
"Ruby".match?(/P.../)    #=> false
$&                       #=> nil

str.next → new_str
#
An alias for succ

str.next! → str
#
An alias for succ!

str.oct → integer
#

Treats leading characters of str as a string of octal digits (with an optional sign) and returns the corresponding number. Returns 0 if the conversion fails.

"123".oct       #=> 83
"-377".oct      #=> -255
"bad".oct       #=> 0
"0377bad".oct   #=> 255

If str starts with 0, radix indicators are honored. See Kernel#Integer.

str.ord → integer
#

Return the Integer ordinal of a one-character string.

"a".ord         #=> 97

str.partition(sep) → [head, sep, tail]

str.partition(regexp) → [head, match, tail]
#

Searches sep or pattern (regexp) in the string and returns the part before it, the match, and the part after it. If it is not found, returns two empty strings and str.

"hello".partition("l")         #=> ["he", "l", "lo"]
"hello".partition("x")         #=> ["hello", "", ""]
"hello".partition(/.l/)        #=> ["h", "el", "lo"]

str.prepend(other_str1, other_str2,...) → str
#

Prepend—Prepend the given strings to str.

a = "!"
a.prepend("hello ", "world") #=> "hello world!"
a                            #=> "hello world!"

See also String#concat.

str.replace(other_str) → str
#
An alias for initialize_copy

str.reverse → new_str
#

Returns a new string with the characters from str in reverse order.

"stressed".reverse   #=> "desserts"

str.reverse! → str
#

Reverses str in place.

str.rindex(substring [, integer]) → integer or nil

str.rindex(regexp [, integer]) → integer or nil
#

Returns the index of the last occurrence of the given substring or pattern (regexp) in str. Returns nil if not found. If the second parameter is present, it specifies the position in the string to end the search—characters beyond this point will not be considered.

"hello".rindex('e')             #=> 1
"hello".rindex('l')             #=> 3
"hello".rindex('a')             #=> nil
"hello".rindex(?e)              #=> 1
"hello".rindex(/[aeiou]/, -2)   #=> 1

str.rjust(integer, padstr=' ') → new_str
#

If integer is greater than the length of str, returns a new String of length integer with str right justified and padded with padstr; otherwise, returns str.

"hello".rjust(4)            #=> "hello"
"hello".rjust(20)           #=> "               hello"
"hello".rjust(20, '1234')   #=> "123412341234123hello"

str.rpartition(sep) → [head, sep, tail]

str.rpartition(regexp) → [head, match, tail]
#

Searches sep or pattern (regexp) in the string from the end of the string, and returns the part before it, the match, and the part after it. If it is not found, returns two empty strings and str.

"hello".rpartition("l")         #=> ["hel", "l", "o"]
"hello".rpartition("x")         #=> ["", "", "hello"]
"hello".rpartition(/.l/)        #=> ["he", "ll", "o"]

str.rstrip → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with trailing whitespace removed. See also String#lstrip and String#strip.

Refer to strip for the definition of whitespace.

"  hello  ".rstrip   #=> "  hello"
"hello".rstrip       #=> "hello"

str.rstrip! → self or nil
#

Removes trailing whitespace from str, returning nil if no change was made. See also String#lstrip! and String#strip!.

Refer to strip for the definition of whitespace.

"  hello  ".rstrip!  #=> "  hello"
"  hello".rstrip!    #=> nil
"hello".rstrip!      #=> nil

str.scan(pattern) → array

str.scan(pattern) {|match, ...| block } → str
#

Both forms iterate through str, matching the pattern (which may be a Regexp or a String). For each match, a result is generated and either added to the result array or passed to the block. If the pattern contains no groups, each individual result consists of the matched string, $&. If the pattern contains groups, each individual result is itself an array containing one entry per group.

a = "cruel world"
a.scan(/\w+/)        #=> ["cruel", "world"]
a.scan(/.../)        #=> ["cru", "el ", "wor"]
a.scan(/(...)/)      #=> [["cru"], ["el "], ["wor"]]
a.scan(/(..)(..)/)   #=> [["cr", "ue"], ["l ", "wo"]]

And the block form:

a.scan(/\w+/) {|w| print "<<#{w}>> " }
print "\n"
a.scan(/(.)(.)/) {|x,y| print y, x }
print "\n"

produces:

<<cruel>> <<world>>
rceu lowlr

scanf(fstr) { |current_match| ... }
#

Scans the current string. If a block is given, it functions exactly like block_scanf.

arr = "123 456".scanf("%d%d")
# => [123, 456]

require 'pp'

"this 123 read that 456 other".scanf("%s%d%s") {|m| pp m}

# ["this", 123, "read"]
# ["that", 456, "other"]
# => [["this", 123, "read"], ["that", 456, "other"]]

See Scanf for details on creating a format string.

You will need to require ‘scanf’ to use String#scanf

str.scrub → new_str

str.scrub(repl) → new_str

str.scrub{|bytes|} → new_str
#

If the string is invalid byte sequence then replace invalid bytes with given replacement character, else returns self. If block is given, replace invalid bytes with returned value of the block.

"abc\u3042\x81".scrub #=> "abc\u3042\uFFFD"
"abc\u3042\x81".scrub("*") #=> "abc\u3042*"
"abc\u3042\xE3\x80".scrub{|bytes| '<'+bytes.unpack('H*')[0]+'>' } #=> "abc\u3042<e380>"

str.scrub! → str

str.scrub!(repl) → str

str.scrub!{|bytes|} → str
#

If the string is invalid byte sequence then replace invalid bytes with given replacement character, else returns self. If block is given, replace invalid bytes with returned value of the block.

"abc\u3042\x81".scrub! #=> "abc\u3042\uFFFD"
"abc\u3042\x81".scrub!("*") #=> "abc\u3042*"
"abc\u3042\xE3\x80".scrub!{|bytes| '<'+bytes.unpack('H*')[0]+'>' } #=> "abc\u3042<e380>"

str.setbyte(index, integer) → integer
#

modifies the indexth byte as integer.

str.shellescape => string
#

Escapes str so that it can be safely used in a Bourne shell command line.

See Shellwords.shellescape for details.

str.shellsplit => array
#

Splits str into an array of tokens in the same way the UNIX Bourne shell does.

See Shellwords.shellsplit for details.

str.size → integer
#
An alias for length

str.slice(index) → new_str or nil

str.slice(start, length) → new_str or nil

str.slice(range) → new_str or nil

str.slice(regexp) → new_str or nil

str.slice(regexp, capture) → new_str or nil

str.slice(match_str) → new_str or nil
#
An alias for []

str.slice!(integer) → new_str or nil

str.slice!(integer, integer) → new_str or nil

str.slice!(range) → new_str or nil

str.slice!(regexp) → new_str or nil

str.slice!(other_str) → new_str or nil
#

Deletes the specified portion from str, and returns the portion deleted.

string = "this is a string"
string.slice!(2)        #=> "i"
string.slice!(3..6)     #=> " is "
string.slice!(/s.*t/)   #=> "sa st"
string.slice!("r")      #=> "r"
string                  #=> "thing"

str.split(pattern=nil, [limit]) → an_array
#

Divides str into substrings based on a delimiter, returning an array of these substrings.

If pattern is a String, then its contents are used as the delimiter when splitting str. If pattern is a single space, str is split on whitespace, with leading whitespace and runs of contiguous whitespace characters ignored.

If pattern is a Regexp, str is divided where the pattern matches. Whenever the pattern matches a zero-length string, str is split into individual characters. If pattern contains groups, the respective matches will be returned in the array as well.

If pattern is nil, the value of $; is used. If $; is nil (which is the default), str is split on whitespace as if ‘ ’ were specified.

If the limit parameter is omitted, trailing null fields are suppressed. If limit is a positive number, at most that number of split substrings will be returned (captured groups will be returned as well, but are not counted towards the limit). If limit is 1, the entire string is returned as the only entry in an array. If negative, there is no limit to the number of fields returned, and trailing null fields are not suppressed.

When the input str is empty an empty Array is returned as the string is considered to have no fields to split.

" now's  the time".split        #=> ["now's", "the", "time"]
" now's  the time".split(' ')   #=> ["now's", "the", "time"]
" now's  the time".split(/ /)   #=> ["", "now's", "", "the", "time"]
"1, 2.34,56, 7".split(%r{,\s*}) #=> ["1", "2.34", "56", "7"]
"hello".split(//)               #=> ["h", "e", "l", "l", "o"]
"hello".split(//, 3)            #=> ["h", "e", "llo"]
"hi mom".split(%r{\s*})         #=> ["h", "i", "m", "o", "m"]

"mellow yellow".split("ello")   #=> ["m", "w y", "w"]
"1,2,,3,4,,".split(',')         #=> ["1", "2", "", "3", "4"]
"1,2,,3,4,,".split(',', 4)      #=> ["1", "2", "", "3,4,,"]
"1,2,,3,4,,".split(',', -4)     #=> ["1", "2", "", "3", "4", "", ""]

"1:2:3".split(/(:)()()/, 2)     #=> ["1", ":", "", "", "2:3"]

"".split(',', -1)               #=> []

str.squeeze([other_str]*) → new_str
#

Builds a set of characters from the other_str parameter(s) using the procedure described for String#count. Returns a new string where runs of the same character that occur in this set are replaced by a single character. If no arguments are given, all runs of identical characters are replaced by a single character.

"yellow moon".squeeze                  #=> "yelow mon"
"  now   is  the".squeeze(" ")         #=> " now is the"
"putters shoot balls".squeeze("m-z")   #=> "puters shot balls"

str.squeeze!([other_str]*) → str or nil
#

Squeezes str in place, returning either str, or nil if no changes were made.

str.start_with?([prefixes]+) → true or false
#

Returns true if str starts with one of the prefixes given.

"hello".start_with?("hell")               #=> true

# returns true if one of the prefixes matches.
"hello".start_with?("heaven", "hell")     #=> true
"hello".start_with?("heaven", "paradise") #=> false

str.strip → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with leading and trailing whitespace removed.

Whitespace is defined as any of the following characters: null, horizontal tab, line feed, vertical tab, form feed, carriage return, space.

"    hello    ".strip   #=> "hello"
"\tgoodbye\r\n".strip   #=> "goodbye"
"\x00\t\n\v\f\r ".strip #=> ""

str.strip! → str or nil
#

Removes leading and trailing whitespace from str. Returns nil if str was not altered.

Refer to strip for the definition of whitespace.

str.sub(pattern, replacement) → new_str

str.sub(pattern, hash) → new_str

str.sub(pattern) {|match| block } → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with the first occurrence of pattern replaced by the second argument. The pattern is typically a Regexp; if given as a String, any regular expression metacharacters it contains will be interpreted literally, e.g. '\\d' will match a backslash followed by ‘d’, instead of a digit.

If replacement is a String it will be substituted for the matched text. It may contain back-references to the pattern’s capture groups of the form "\d", where d is a group number, or "\k<n>", where n is a group name. If it is a double-quoted string, both back-references must be preceded by an additional backslash. However, within replacement the special match variables, such as $&, will not refer to the current match. If replacement is a String that looks like a pattern’s capture group but is actually not a pattern capture group e.g. "\'", then it will have to be preceded by two backslashes like so "\\'".

If the second argument is a Hash, and the matched text is one of its keys, the corresponding value is the replacement string.

In the block form, the current match string is passed in as a parameter, and variables such as $1, $2, $`, $&, and $' will be set appropriately. The value returned by the block will be substituted for the match on each call.

The result inherits any tainting in the original string or any supplied replacement string.

"hello".sub(/[aeiou]/, '*')                  #=> "h*llo"
"hello".sub(/([aeiou])/, '<\1>')             #=> "h<e>llo"
"hello".sub(/./) {|s| s.ord.to_s + ' ' }     #=> "104 ello"
"hello".sub(/(?<foo>[aeiou])/, '*\k<foo>*')  #=> "h*e*llo"
'Is SHELL your preferred shell?'.sub(/[[:upper:]]{2,}/, ENV)
 #=> "Is /bin/bash your preferred shell?"

str.sub!(pattern, replacement) → str or nil

str.sub!(pattern) {|match| block } → str or nil
#

Performs the same substitution as String#sub in-place.

Returns str if a substitution was performed or nil if no substitution was performed.

str.succ → new_str
#

Returns the successor to str. The successor is calculated by incrementing characters starting from the rightmost alphanumeric (or the rightmost character if there are no alphanumerics) in the string. Incrementing a digit always results in another digit, and incrementing a letter results in another letter of the same case. Incrementing nonalphanumerics uses the underlying character set’s collating sequence.

If the increment generates a “carry,” the character to the left of it is incremented. This process repeats until there is no carry, adding an additional character if necessary.

"abcd".succ        #=> "abce"
"THX1138".succ     #=> "THX1139"
"<<koala>>".succ   #=> "<<koalb>>"
"1999zzz".succ     #=> "2000aaa"
"ZZZ9999".succ     #=> "AAAA0000"
"***".succ         #=> "**+"

str.succ! → str
#

Equivalent to String#succ, but modifies the receiver in place.

str.sum(n=16) → integer
#

Returns a basic n-bit checksum of the characters in str, where n is the optional Integer parameter, defaulting to 16. The result is simply the sum of the binary value of each byte in str modulo 2**n - 1. This is not a particularly good checksum.

str.swapcase → new_str

str.swapcase([options]) → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with uppercase alphabetic characters converted to lowercase and lowercase characters converted to uppercase.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

"Hello".swapcase          #=> "hELLO"
"cYbEr_PuNk11".swapcase   #=> "CyBeR_pUnK11"

str.swapcase! → str or nil

str.swapcase!([options]) → str or nil
#

Equivalent to String#swapcase, but modifies the receiver in place, returning str, or nil if no changes were made.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

str.to_c → complex
#

Returns a complex which denotes the string form. The parser ignores leading whitespaces and trailing garbage. Any digit sequences can be separated by an underscore. Returns zero for null or garbage string.

'9'.to_c           #=> (9+0i)
'2.5'.to_c         #=> (2.5+0i)
'2.5/1'.to_c       #=> ((5/2)+0i)
'-3/2'.to_c        #=> ((-3/2)+0i)
'-i'.to_c          #=> (0-1i)
'45i'.to_c         #=> (0+45i)
'3-4i'.to_c        #=> (3-4i)
'-4e2-4e-2i'.to_c  #=> (-400.0-0.04i)
'-0.0-0.0i'.to_c   #=> (-0.0-0.0i)
'1/2+3/4i'.to_c    #=> ((1/2)+(3/4)*i)
'ruby'.to_c        #=> (0+0i)

See Kernel.Complex.

str.to_d → bigdecimal
#

Returns the result of interpreting leading characters in str as a BigDecimal.

require 'bigdecimal'
require 'bigdecimal/util'

"0.5".to_d             # => 0.5e0
"123.45e1".to_d        # => 0.12345e4
"45.67 degrees".to_d   # => 0.4567e2

See also BigDecimal::new.

str.to_f → float
#

Returns the result of interpreting leading characters in str as a floating point number. Extraneous characters past the end of a valid number are ignored. If there is not a valid number at the start of str, 0.0 is returned. This method never raises an exception.

"123.45e1".to_f        #=> 1234.5
"45.67 degrees".to_f   #=> 45.67
"thx1138".to_f         #=> 0.0

str.to_i(base=10) → integer
#

Returns the result of interpreting leading characters in str as an integer base base (between 2 and 36). Extraneous characters past the end of a valid number are ignored. If there is not a valid number at the start of str, 0 is returned. This method never raises an exception when base is valid.

"12345".to_i             #=> 12345
"99 red balloons".to_i   #=> 99
"0a".to_i                #=> 0
"0a".to_i(16)            #=> 10
"hello".to_i             #=> 0
"1100101".to_i(2)        #=> 101
"1100101".to_i(8)        #=> 294977
"1100101".to_i(10)       #=> 1100101
"1100101".to_i(16)       #=> 17826049

str.to_r → rational
#

Returns a rational which denotes the string form. The parser ignores leading whitespaces and trailing garbage. Any digit sequences can be separated by an underscore. Returns zero for null or garbage string.

NOTE: ‘0.3’.to_r isn’t the same as 0.3.to_r. The former is equivalent to ‘3/10’.to_r, but the latter isn’t so.

'  2  '.to_r       #=> (2/1)
'300/2'.to_r       #=> (150/1)
'-9.2'.to_r        #=> (-46/5)
'-9.2e2'.to_r      #=> (-920/1)
'1_234_567'.to_r   #=> (1234567/1)
'21 june 09'.to_r  #=> (21/1)
'21/06/09'.to_r    #=> (7/2)
'bwv 1079'.to_r    #=> (0/1)

See Kernel.Rational.

str.to_s → str
#

Returns self.

If called on a subclass of String, converts the receiver to a String object.

str.to_str → str
#
An alias for to_s

str.to_sym → symbol
#
An alias for intern

String#toeuc => string
#

Convert self to EUC-JP

String#tojis => string
#

Convert self to ISO-2022-JP

String#tolocale => string
#

Convert self to locale encoding

String#tosjis => string
#

Convert self to Shift_JIS

String#toutf16 => string
#

Convert self to UTF-16

String#toutf32 => string
#

Convert self to UTF-32

String#toutf8 => string
#

Convert self to UTF-8

str.tr(from_str, to_str) => new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with the characters in from_str replaced by the corresponding characters in to_str. If to_str is shorter than from_str, it is padded with its last character in order to maintain the correspondence.

"hello".tr('el', 'ip')      #=> "hippo"
"hello".tr('aeiou', '*')    #=> "h*ll*"
"hello".tr('aeiou', 'AA*')  #=> "hAll*"

Both strings may use the c1-c2 notation to denote ranges of characters, and from_str may start with a ^, which denotes all characters except those listed.

"hello".tr('a-y', 'b-z')    #=> "ifmmp"
"hello".tr('^aeiou', '*')   #=> "*e**o"

The backslash character \ can be used to escape ^ or - and is otherwise ignored unless it appears at the end of a range or the end of the from_str or to_str:

"hello^world".tr("\\^aeiou", "*") #=> "h*ll**w*rld"
"hello-world".tr("a\\-eo", "*")   #=> "h*ll**w*rld"

"hello\r\nworld".tr("\r", "")   #=> "hello\nworld"
"hello\r\nworld".tr("\\r", "")  #=> "hello\r\nwold"
"hello\r\nworld".tr("\\\r", "") #=> "hello\nworld"

"X['\\b']".tr("X\\", "")   #=> "['b']"
"X['\\b']".tr("X-\\]", "") #=> "'b'"

str.tr!(from_str, to_str) → str or nil
#

Translates str in place, using the same rules as String#tr. Returns str, or nil if no changes were made.

str.tr_s(from_str, to_str) → new_str
#

Processes a copy of str as described under String#tr, then removes duplicate characters in regions that were affected by the translation.

"hello".tr_s('l', 'r')     #=> "hero"
"hello".tr_s('el', '*')    #=> "h*o"
"hello".tr_s('el', 'hx')   #=> "hhxo"

str.tr_s!(from_str, to_str) → str or nil
#

Performs String#tr_s processing on str in place, returning str, or nil if no changes were made.

str.unicode_normalize(form=:nfc)
#

Unicode Normalization

Returns a normalized form of str, using Unicode normalizations NFC, NFD, NFKC, or NFKD. The normalization form used is determined by form, which is any of the four values :nfc, :nfd, :nfkc, or :nfkd. The default is :nfc.

If the string is not in a Unicode Encoding, then an Exception is raised. In this context, ‘Unicode Encoding’ means any of UTF-8, UTF-16BE/LE, and UTF-32BE/LE, as well as GB18030, UCS_2BE, and UCS_4BE. Anything else than UTF-8 is implemented by converting to UTF-8, which makes it slower than UTF-8.

Examples

"a\u0300".unicode_normalize        #=> 'à' (same as "\u00E0")
"a\u0300".unicode_normalize(:nfc)  #=> 'à' (same as "\u00E0")
"\u00E0".unicode_normalize(:nfd)   #=> 'à' (same as "a\u0300")
"\xE0".force_encoding('ISO-8859-1').unicode_normalize(:nfd)
                                   #=> Encoding::CompatibilityError raised

str.unicode_normalize!(form=:nfc)
#

Destructive version of String#unicode_normalize, doing Unicode normalization in place.

str.unicode_normalized?(form=:nfc)
#

Checks whether str is in Unicode normalization form form, which is any of the four values :nfc, :nfd, :nfkc, or :nfkd. The default is :nfc.

If the string is not in a Unicode Encoding, then an Exception is raised. For details, see String#unicode_normalize.

Examples

"a\u0300".unicode_normalized?        #=> false
"a\u0300".unicode_normalized?(:nfd)  #=> true
"\u00E0".unicode_normalized?         #=> true
"\u00E0".unicode_normalized?(:nfd)   #=> false
"\xE0".force_encoding('ISO-8859-1').unicode_normalized?
                                     #=> Encoding::CompatibilityError raised

str.unpack(format) → anArray
#

Decodes str (which may contain binary data) according to the format string, returning an array of each value extracted. The format string consists of a sequence of single-character directives, summarized in the table at the end of this entry. Each directive may be followed by a number, indicating the number of times to repeat with this directive. An asterisk (“*”) will use up all remaining elements. The directives sSiIlL may each be followed by an underscore (“_”) or exclamation mark (“!”) to use the underlying platform’s native size for the specified type; otherwise, it uses a platform-independent consistent size. Spaces are ignored in the format string. See also String#unpack1, Array#pack.

"abc \0\0abc \0\0".unpack('A6Z6')   #=> ["abc", "abc "]
"abc \0\0".unpack('a3a3')           #=> ["abc", " \000\000"]
"abc \0abc \0".unpack('Z*Z*')       #=> ["abc ", "abc "]
"aa".unpack('b8B8')                 #=> ["10000110", "01100001"]
"aaa".unpack('h2H2c')               #=> ["16", "61", 97]
"\xfe\xff\xfe\xff".unpack('sS')     #=> [-2, 65534]
"now=20is".unpack('M*')             #=> ["now is"]
"whole".unpack('xax2aX2aX1aX2a')    #=> ["h", "e", "l", "l", "o"]

This table summarizes the various formats and the Ruby classes returned by each.

Integer       |         |
Directive     | Returns | Meaning
------------------------------------------------------------------
C             | Integer | 8-bit unsigned (unsigned char)
S             | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, native endian (uint16_t)
L             | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, native endian (uint32_t)
Q             | Integer | 64-bit unsigned, native endian (uint64_t)
J             | Integer | pointer width unsigned, native endian (uintptr_t)
              |         |
c             | Integer | 8-bit signed (signed char)
s             | Integer | 16-bit signed, native endian (int16_t)
l             | Integer | 32-bit signed, native endian (int32_t)
q             | Integer | 64-bit signed, native endian (int64_t)
j             | Integer | pointer width signed, native endian (intptr_t)
              |         |
S_ S!         | Integer | unsigned short, native endian
I I_ I!       | Integer | unsigned int, native endian
L_ L!         | Integer | unsigned long, native endian
Q_ Q!         | Integer | unsigned long long, native endian (ArgumentError
              |         | if the platform has no long long type.)
J!            | Integer | uintptr_t, native endian (same with J)
              |         |
s_ s!         | Integer | signed short, native endian
i i_ i!       | Integer | signed int, native endian
l_ l!         | Integer | signed long, native endian
q_ q!         | Integer | signed long long, native endian (ArgumentError
              |         | if the platform has no long long type.)
j!            | Integer | intptr_t, native endian (same with j)
              |         |
S> s> S!> s!> | Integer | same as the directives without ">" except
L> l> L!> l!> |         | big endian
I!> i!>       |         |
Q> q> Q!> q!> |         | "S>" is same as "n"
J> j> J!> j!> |         | "L>" is same as "N"
              |         |
S< s< S!< s!< | Integer | same as the directives without "<" except
L< l< L!< l!< |         | little endian
I!< i!<       |         |
Q< q< Q!< q!< |         | "S<" is same as "v"
J< j< J!< j!< |         | "L<" is same as "V"
              |         |
n             | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, network (big-endian) byte order
N             | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, network (big-endian) byte order
v             | Integer | 16-bit unsigned, VAX (little-endian) byte order
V             | Integer | 32-bit unsigned, VAX (little-endian) byte order
              |         |
U             | Integer | UTF-8 character
w             | Integer | BER-compressed integer (see Array.pack)

Float        |         |
Directive    | Returns | Meaning
-----------------------------------------------------------------
D d          | Float   | double-precision, native format
F f          | Float   | single-precision, native format
E            | Float   | double-precision, little-endian byte order
e            | Float   | single-precision, little-endian byte order
G            | Float   | double-precision, network (big-endian) byte order
g            | Float   | single-precision, network (big-endian) byte order

String       |         |
Directive    | Returns | Meaning
-----------------------------------------------------------------
A            | String  | arbitrary binary string (remove trailing nulls and ASCII spaces)
a            | String  | arbitrary binary string
Z            | String  | null-terminated string
B            | String  | bit string (MSB first)
b            | String  | bit string (LSB first)
H            | String  | hex string (high nibble first)
h            | String  | hex string (low nibble first)
u            | String  | UU-encoded string
M            | String  | quoted-printable, MIME encoding (see RFC2045)
m            | String  | base64 encoded string (RFC 2045) (default)
             |         | base64 encoded string (RFC 4648) if followed by 0
P            | String  | pointer to a structure (fixed-length string)
p            | String  | pointer to a null-terminated string

Misc.        |         |
Directive    | Returns | Meaning
-----------------------------------------------------------------
@            | ---     | skip to the offset given by the length argument
X            | ---     | skip backward one byte
x            | ---     | skip forward one byte

HISTORY

  • J, J! j, and j! are available since Ruby 2.3.

  • Q_, Q!, q_, and q! are available since Ruby 2.1.

  • I!<, i!<, I!>, and i!> are available since Ruby 1.9.3.

str.unpack1(format) → obj
#

Decodes str (which may contain binary data) according to the format string, returning the first value extracted. See also String#unpack, Array#pack.

str.upcase → new_str

str.upcase([options]) → new_str
#

Returns a copy of str with all lowercase letters replaced with their uppercase counterparts.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

"hEllO".upcase   #=> "HELLO"

str.upcase! → str or nil

str.upcase!([options]) → str or nil
#

Upcases the contents of str, returning nil if no changes were made.

See String#downcase for meaning of options and use with different encodings.

str.upto(other_str, exclusive=false) {|s| block } → str

str.upto(other_str, exclusive=false) → an_enumerator
#

Iterates through successive values, starting at str and ending at other_str inclusive, passing each value in turn to the block. The String#succ method is used to generate each value. If optional second argument exclusive is omitted or is false, the last value will be included; otherwise it will be excluded.

If no block is given, an enumerator is returned instead.

"a8".upto("b6") {|s| print s, ' ' }
for s in "a8".."b6"
  print s, ' '
end

produces:

a8 a9 b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6
a8 a9 b0 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6

If str and other_str contains only ascii numeric characters, both are recognized as decimal numbers. In addition, the width of string (e.g. leading zeros) is handled appropriately.

"9".upto("11").to_a   #=> ["9", "10", "11"]
"25".upto("5").to_a   #=> []
"07".upto("11").to_a  #=> ["07", "08", "09", "10", "11"]

str.valid_encoding? → true or false
#

Returns true for a string which is encoded correctly.

"\xc2\xa1".force_encoding("UTF-8").valid_encoding?  #=> true
"\xc2".force_encoding("UTF-8").valid_encoding?      #=> false
"\x80".force_encoding("UTF-8").valid_encoding?      #=> false