convert ascii codes in a string to a string of characters

[smitty]

Is there a more efficient way to convert a string such as
"abcdef" to "abcdef" ?

Currently I am doing the following:
a="abcdef"
a.delete!("&#")
ar = a.split(';')
arn = ar.collect { |s| Integer(s) }
s = arn.pack("U*")
puts "s=#{s.inspect}"

I need to do this for thousands of records that are
loaded into a database, so I'm a bit concerned
about repeatedly executing all of the above code.
Thanks

 

[Peña, Botp]

From: smitty [mailto:[email protected]]=20
# Is there a more efficient way to convert a string such as
# "abcdef" to "abcdef" ?
#=20
# Currently I am doing the following:
# a=3D"abcdef"
# a.delete!("&#")
# ar =3D a.split(';')
# arn =3D ar.collect { |s| Integer(s) }
# s =3D arn.pack("U*")
# puts "s=3D#{s.inspect}"

i'm feeling good today

"abcdef".delete("&#").split(";").map{|x| =

x.to_i}.pack("U*")
=3D> "abcdef"

or

"abcdef".gsub(/\&\#(\d+);/){|x| =

$1.to_i.chr}
=3D> "abcdef"

require 'cgi' =3D> false
CGI.unescapeHTML "abcdef"

=3D> "abcdef"

kind regards -botp

 

[Chris Dew]

Have you looked at http://www.zenspider.com/ZSS/Products/RubyInline/ ?

You could write the conversion routine in C, which is efficient for
customised byte manipulation.

There may be an efficient Ruby solution, but this is one tool which
could be used for the job.

 

[Mark Thomas]

Is there a more efficient way to convert a string such as
"abcdef" to "abcdef" ?

CGI::unescapeHTML(str)

 

[Bernard Kenik]

CGI::unescapeHTML(str)

irb(main):029:0> a="abcdef"
=> "abcdef"
irb(main):030:0> s = a.scan(/\d+/).collect { |ch| ch.to_i.chr }.join()
=> "abcdef"