Getting string characters in an array

Question

I have a string in ruby whose initial characters would be numbers and the last character would always be a letter. Some of the examples are: 2C, 1P, 45H, 135D.

I want to get an array which would have 2 objects, first would be the number and second would be the character.

Eg: for 2C, array would be [2, C]
    for 45H, array would be [45, H]
    for 135D, array would be [135, D]

I tried my_string[/(\d+)([A-Z])$/].split(//, 1), but it gives me an entire string in an array. Like ["2C"], ["45H"]

Am I missing something here?

Try splitting by (?<=\d)(?=[A-Z]) instead...I can explain and post as answer if it works. — Sam
– Sam, Commented May 9, 2014 at 16:36

Sam · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-09 16:42:13Z

4

I had to do some quick Googling to see how to use Ruby's split, but here is how you want to do it:

print '2C'.split(/(?<=\d)(?=[A-Z])/);
// ["2", "C"]

The expression works by doing a lookbehind ((?<=...)) and a lookahead ((?=...)). This means we will match the spot that has a digit to the left and a letter to the right.

answered May 9, 2014 at 16:42

Sam

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3 Comments

tech_human Over a year ago

Oh you using regex directly inside split. Hmm nice ways. Let me give it a try.

Sam Over a year ago

No problem, glad it helped -- short and sweet :)

Amal Over a year ago

Ah, using Ruby's split() is easier than I thought. +1

Uri Agassi · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-09 17:19:09Z

1

You can use scan:

'150D'.scan(/\d+|\w/)
# => ["150", "D"]

answered May 9, 2014 at 17:19

Uri Agassi

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