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#[]=.
Returns the string being scanned.
Returns a frozen copy of the string passed in to match.
m = /(.)(.)(\d+)(\d)/.match("THX1138.") m.string #=> "THX1138."
Returns arg as a String.
First tries to call its to_str method, then its to_s method.
String(self) #=> "main" String(self.class) #=> "Object" String(123456) #=> "123456"
Returns a copy of the receiver 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 #=> "" "hello".strip #=> "hello"
Returns a copy of the receiver with leading whitespace removed. See also String#rstrip and String#strip.
Refer to String#strip for the definition of whitespace.
" hello ".lstrip #=> "hello " "hello".lstrip #=> "hello"
Returns a copy of the receiver with trailing whitespace removed. See also String#lstrip and String#strip.
Refer to String#strip for the definition of whitespace.
" hello ".rstrip #=> " hello" "hello".rstrip #=> "hello"
Removes leading and trailing whitespace from the receiver. Returns the altered receiver, or nil if there was no change.
Refer to String#strip for the definition of whitespace.
" hello ".strip! #=> "hello" "hello".strip! #=> nil
Removes leading whitespace from the receiver. Returns the altered receiver, or nil if no change was made. See also String#rstrip! and String#strip!.
Refer to String#strip for the definition of whitespace.
" hello ".lstrip! #=> "hello " "hello ".lstrip! #=> nil "hello".lstrip! #=> nil
Removes trailing whitespace from the receiver. Returns the altered receiver, or nil if no change was made. See also String#lstrip! and String#strip!.
Refer to String#strip for the definition of whitespace.
" hello ".rstrip! #=> " hello" " hello".rstrip! #=> nil "hello".rstrip! #=> nil
Returns the Integer index of the last occurrence of the given substring, or nil if none found:
'foo'.rindex('f') # => 0 'foo'.rindex('o') # => 2 'foo'.rindex('oo') # => 1 'foo'.rindex('ooo') # => nil
Returns the Integer index of the last match for the given Regexp regexp, or nil if none found:
'foo'.rindex(/f/) # => 0 'foo'.rindex(/o/) # => 2 'foo'.rindex(/oo/) # => 1 'foo'.rindex(/ooo/) # => nil
The last match means starting at the possible last position, not the last of longest matches.
'foo'.rindex(/o+/) # => 2 $~ #=> #<MatchData "o">
To get the last longest match, needs to combine with negative lookbehind.
'foo'.rindex(/(?<!o)o+/) # => 1 $~ #=> #<MatchData "oo">
Or String#index with negative lookforward.
'foo'.index(/o+(?!.*o)/) # => 1 $~ #=> #<MatchData "oo">
Integer argument offset, if given and non-negative, specifies the maximum starting position in the
string to _end_ the search: 'foo'.rindex('o', 0) # => nil 'foo'.rindex('o', 1) # => 1 'foo'.rindex('o', 2) # => 2 'foo'.rindex('o', 3) # => 2
If offset is a negative Integer, the maximum starting position in the string to end the search is the sum of the string’s length and offset:
'foo'.rindex('o', -1) # => 2 'foo'.rindex('o', -2) # => 1 'foo'.rindex('o', -3) # => nil 'foo'.rindex('o', -4) # => nil
Related: String#index
Returns the Encoding object that represents the encoding of obj.
Inserts the given other_string into self; returns self.
If the Integer index is positive, inserts other_string at offset index:
'foo'.insert(1, 'bar') # => "fbaroo"
If the Integer index is negative, counts backward from the end of self and inserts other_string at offset index+1 (that is, after self[index]):
'foo'.insert(-2, 'bar') # => "fobaro"
Returns the count of characters (not bytes) in self:
"\x80\u3042".length # => 2 "hello".length # => 5
String#size is an alias for String#length.
Related: String#bytesize.
Returns the Integer index of the first occurrence of the given substring, or nil if none found:
'foo'.index('f') # => 0 'foo'.index('o') # => 1 'foo'.index('oo') # => 1 'foo'.index('ooo') # => nil
Returns the Integer index of the first match for the given Regexp regexp, or nil if none found:
'foo'.index(/f/) # => 0 'foo'.index(/o/) # => 1 'foo'.index(/oo/) # => 1 'foo'.index(/ooo/) # => nil
Integer argument offset, if given, specifies the position in the string to begin the search:
'foo'.index('o', 1) # => 1 'foo'.index('o', 2) # => 2 'foo'.index('o', 3) # => nil
If offset is negative, counts backward from the end of self:
'foo'.index('o', -1) # => 2 'foo'.index('o', -2) # => 1 'foo'.index('o', -3) # => 1 'foo'.index('o', -4) # => nil
Related: String#rindex
Returns a printable version of str, surrounded by quote marks, with special characters escaped.
str = "hello" str[3] = "\b" str.inspect #=> "\"hel\\bo\""
Returns an array of lines in str split using the supplied record separator ($/ by default). This is a shorthand for str.each_line(separator, getline_args).to_a.
If chomp is true, separator will be removed from the end of each line.
"hello\nworld\n".lines #=> ["hello\n", "world\n"] "hello world".lines(' ') #=> ["hello ", " ", "world"] "hello\nworld\n".lines(chomp: true) #=> ["hello", "world"]
If a block is given, which is a deprecated form, works the same as each_line.
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.
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"
Returns true if str contains the given string or character.
"hello".include? "lo" #=> true "hello".include? "ol" #=> false "hello".include? ?h #=> true
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"
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"
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'"