How do I get the match data for all occurrences of a Ruby regular expression in a string?

user_156533 0
Viewed 17709

I need the MatchData for each occurrence of a regular expression in a string. This is different than the scan method suggested in Match All Occurrences of a Regex, since that only gives me an array of strings (I need the full MatchData, to get begin and end information, etc).

input = "abc12def34ghijklmno567pqrs"
numbers = /\d+/

numbers.match input # #<MatchData "12"> (only the first match)
input.scan numbers  # ["12", "34", "567"] (all matches, but only the strings)

I suspect there is some method that I've overlooked. Suggestions?

ruby regex
5 Answers

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the amazing StringScanner class included in Ruby's standard library:

require 'strscan'

s = StringScanner.new('abc12def34ghijklmno567pqrs')

while s.skip_until(/\d+/)
  num, offset = s.matched.to_i, [s.pos - s.matched_size, s.pos - 1]

  # ..
end

No, it doesn't give you the MatchData objects, but it does give you an index-based interface into the string.

user_10215150 
input = "abc12def34ghijklmno567pqrs"
n = Regexp.new("\\d+")
[n.match(input)].tap { |a| a << n.match(input,a.last().end(0)+1) until a.last().nil? }[0..-2]

=> [#<MatchData "12">, #<MatchData "34">, #<MatchData "567">]
user_16383440
Related