String Class
A String
object in Ruby holds and manipulates an arbitrary sequence of one or more bytes, typically representing characters that represent human language. Ruby has a built-in class called String
that defines a number of methods that are used frequently when programming Ruby. Those methods are listed at the end of this section. Following are string-related features Ruby.
Expression Substitution
Expression substitution is a means of embedding the value of any Ruby expression into a string using #{
and }
:
x, y, z = 12, 36, 72 puts "The value of x is #{ x }. puts "The sum of x and y is #{ x + y }. puts "The average was #{ (x + y + z)/3 }."
General Delimited Strings
With general delimited strings, you can create strings inside a pair of matching though arbitrary delimiter characters, e.g., !
, (
, {
, <
, etc., preceded by a percent character (%)
. Q
, q
, and x
have special meanings. General delimited strings can be nested:
%{
Ruby is fun.}
# => "Ruby is fun."%Q{
Ruby is fun.}
# => " Ruby is fun. "%q[
Ruby is fun.]
# equivalent to a single-quoted string%x!
ls!
# => equivalent to back tick command output 'ls'
Here Documents
Here documents allow you to quickly build multiline strings inside a nested pair of characters or words, preceded by <<
. "
, '
, '
, and -
have special meanings. Here’s an example:
# double-quoted string puts<<x
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven. x # double-quoted string, assigned to variable hamlet =<<"yorick"
Alas, poor ...
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