Way to split a string based on fixed length?

Ruby
1

This is probably a newb question but I can’t seem to figure it out. I
have a string I’m trying to parse, that is done via a fixed length
format - it needs to be split on every 8th character in order for me to
get a proper array list of it so I can do some additional operations on
it.

The string is something like this: ‘0000000N0000000N0000000N0000000N’
and I need it to be an array containing something like: [‘0000000N’,
‘0000000N’, ‘0000000N’, ‘0000000N’].

Is there a ruby method I can use to split the single string into groups
of x number of characters, when there is no delimiter?

2

On Oct 20, 2008, at 9:34 AM, Wayne M. wrote:

‘0000000N’, ‘0000000N’, ‘0000000N’].

Is there a ruby method I can use to split the single string into
groups
of x number of characters, when there is no delimiter?

Sure, you can use a regular expression for this:

“0000000N0000000N0000000N0000000N”.scan(/.{1,8}/m)
=> [“0000000N”, “0000000N”, “0000000N”, “0000000N”]

James Edward G. II

3

On 2008-10-20, Wayne M. [email protected] wrote:

Is there a ruby method I can use to split the single string into
groups of x number of characters, when there is no delimiter?

irb(main):001:0> “abcdefghijklmnpqrstuvwxyz”.scan /.{8}/
=> [“abcdefgh”, “ijklmnpq”, “rstuvwxy”]
irb(main):002:0>

Regards,

Jeremy H.

4

You can use:

string.unpack “A8A8A4A2” # => [“0000000N”, “0000000N”, “0000”, “00”]

Regards, John.

5

I thought String#split with a regex might do it, but I’m not sure why it
returns an array with empty strings in it. So I tried String#scan. It
works,
but since we’re grouping into runs of eight characters, it returns an
array
of arrays of results. No problem, we can just use Array#flatten to take
care
of that. Here’s IRB output showing the approaches:

‘0000000N0000000N0000000N0000000N’.split(/(\w{8})/)
=> ["", “0000000N”, “”, “0000000N”, “”, “0000000N”, “”, “0000000N”]

‘0000000N0000000N0000000N0000000N’.scan(/(\w{8})/)
=> [[“0000000N”], [“0000000N”], [“0000000N”], [“0000000N”]]

‘0000000N0000000N0000000N0000000N’.scan(/(\w{8})/).flatten
=> [“0000000N”, “0000000N”, “0000000N”, “0000000N”]

Regards,
Craig

6

Awesome! Thanks much!

7

D’oh, GMail didn’t update the conversation while I was replying. Anyway,
you
have some good answers.

Craig

8

Craig D. wrote:

I thought String#split with a regex might do it, but I’m not sure why it
returns an array with empty strings in it. So I tried String#scan. It
works,

Don’t quote me on this, but I think that would be because String#split
had a regex to define the character/group of characters that you’re
interested in, so if you’re defining the split as any old 8 characters
then that doesn’t leave an awful lot!

9

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 4:04 PM, Craig D.
[email protected]wrote:

I thought String#split with a regex might do it, but I’m not sure why it
returns an array with empty strings in it.
[snip]

‘0000000N0000000N0000000N0000000N’.split(/(\w{8})/)
=> [“”, “0000000N”, “”, “0000000N”, “”, “0000000N”, “”, “0000000N”]

Going a bit off topic here, but I suspect the reason split adds empty
strings is because it is matching the 8 characters, splitting there, but
because you are capturing them, puts the delimiter back in the array it
as
well. The gap between the 8 characters is nothing, thus “”. I guess that
if
you split(/\w{8}/) you’ll get nothing because there will be nothing left
after removing the delimeter (unless the string isn’t of length 8n, n is
an
integer.)