Ruby String read from file outputting backslashes

Question

I want to read data.txt file and output the same as string2, but when I read from the file Ruby prints the backslashes, why is that so and how can I avoid it?

data.txt contains

\",\"foo\":{\"id\":1111,\"name\":\"Bar\",

file = File.open("data.txt", "r")
string1 = file.read

puts "string1: #{string1}"

string2 = "\",\"foo\":{\"id\":1111,\"name\":\"Bar\","
puts "string2: #{string2}"

Output

$ ruby test.rb
\",\"role\":{\"id\":1111,\"name\":\"Mobile\",
","role":{"id":1111,"name":"Mobile",

My goal is to read data.txt and output ","role":{"id":1111,"name":"Mobile",

removed the open binary option but seems to be the common way when reading a File to String — André Ricardo
– André Ricardo, Commented May 9, 2014 at 0:09
@AndréRicardo In that example they're opening a gzip file, which is a binary file format. If you're opening a text file, the binary option is unnecesary. — Ajedi32
– Ajedi32, Commented May 9, 2014 at 15:53

nPn · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-09 15:20:25Z

0

I the data read from the file the backslashes are part of the data. in your string2 the backslashes are escape characters.

There are pr1obably better ways to to this but , you could probably just use gsub to get ride of the backslashes. try this and see if it does what you want

string1.gsub(/[\\\"]/,"")

if you just want to remove the /'s

string1.gsub(/\\/,"") should work also

edited May 9, 2014 at 15:20

answered May 9, 2014 at 0:25

nPn

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2 Comments

André Ricardo Over a year ago

I tested this, but had to change it to .gsub(/[\]/,"") for the expected results

nPn Over a year ago

oops, sorry I missed that you wanted to keep the "'s

John C · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-09 00:16:37Z

0

When you read the text file the escape characters are actually there in the file, so they are read and added to your string.

When you generate a string in your code the escape characters are interpreted. So \" is replaced with the character " and placed in your variable.

So there is no need to escape the special characters in your input file.

answered May 9, 2014 at 0:16

John C

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3 Comments

John C Over a year ago

If you want to have an escaped data file and turn it into an unescaped string you could use this call. (It's not pretty) puts "string1: #{eval("puts \"" + @string1 + "\"")}"

Ajedi32 Over a year ago

That solution for unescaping the string relies on the string in your file being escaped properly in the first place. If it isn't, you'll either get an error, or arbitrary Ruby code could be executed in the context of your application.

John C Over a year ago

Yes. But just arbitrarily removing all the back slashes won't work well for other cases such as an escaped backslash.

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