using n.times with gsub

[davidpthomas]

GOAL: one-liner substitute of 5 spaces at beginning of a line.

WORKS: gsub(/^/, " ")
FAILS: gsub(/^/, 5.times {putc " "})

-example-
WORKS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, " ")'
FAILS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, 5.times{putc " "})'


I've tried variations of putc, puts, and print. All fail in different
ways.

thoughts? -- dave

 

[Jim Weirich]

GOAL: one-liner substitute of 5 spaces at beginning of a line.

WORKS: gsub(/^/, " ")
FAILS: gsub(/^/, 5.times {putc " "})

-example-
WORKS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, " ")'
FAILS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, 5.times{putc " "})'


I've tried variations of putc, puts, and print. All fail in different
ways.

cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, " " * 5)
cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, (1..5).collect { " " }.join }

 

[Ara.T.Howard]

GOAL: one-liner substitute of 5 spaces at beginning of a line.

WORKS: gsub(/^/, " ")
FAILS: gsub(/^/, 5.times {putc " "})

-example-
WORKS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, " ")'
FAILS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, 5.times{putc " "})'


I've tried variations of putc, puts, and print. All fail in different
ways.

thoughts? -- dave

works:

harp:~ > cat a
a
b
c
harp:~ > ruby -pe ' 5.times{ gsub /^/, 32.chr } ' < a
a
b
c

simpler:

harp:~ > ruby -pe ' sub /^/, 32.chr * 5' < a
a
b
c

cheers.

-a
--
===============================================================================
| ara [dot] t [dot] howard [at] gmail [dot] com
| all happiness comes from the desire for others to be happy. all misery
| comes from the desire for oneself to be happy.
| -- bodhicaryavatara
===============================================================================

 

[Sam Gentle]

WORKS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, " ")'
FAILS: $ cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, 5.times{putc " "})'

n.times returns n, so gsub, expecting a string instead of a number,
croaks at that.

I'm not sure if calling output functions inside a substitution is
something you really want to do... wouldn't something like Jim's
answer, or even " " * 5 make more sense?

Sam

 

[x1]

"asdf".gsub(/^/," "*5)

cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, " " * 5)
cat foo.out | ruby -pe 'gsub(/^/, (1..5).collect { " " }.join }

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

works:

harp:~ > cat a
a
b
c
harp:~ > ruby -pe ' 5.times{ gsub /^/, 32.chr } ' < a
a
b
c

simpler:

harp:~ > ruby -pe ' sub /^/, 32.chr * 5' < a
a
b
c

Tiny further simplification: s/<//


David

 

[nobuyoshi nakada]

Hi,

At Tue, 15 Nov 2005 11:42:17 +0900,

GOAL: one-liner substitute of 5 spaces at beginning of a line.

ruby -pe 'print " "' < foo.out