Pull multiple values from a string using RegEx

Question

I have the string "{:name=>\"entry 1\", :description=>\"description 1\"}"

I'm using regex to get the values of name and description...

string = "{:name=>\"entry 1\", :description=>\"description 1\"}"

name = /\:name=>\"(.*?)\,/.match(string)
description = /\:description=>\"(.*?)\,/.match(string)

This however only returns name as #<MatchData ":name=>\"entry 1\"," 1:"entry 1\""> and description comes back as nil.

What I ideally want is for name to return "entry 1" and description come back as "description 1"

I'm not sure where I'm going wrong... any ideas?

Not what you are looking for, but note: eval(string).values #=> ["entry 1", "description 1"] . — Cary Swoveland
– Cary Swoveland, Commented May 21, 2015 at 16:25

JCorcuera · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-21 16:26:00Z

1

The problem is the comma in /\:description=>\"(.*?)\,/ should be /\:description=>\"(.*?)/ or /\:description=>\"([^"]+)/

Also you can this method:

def extract_value_from_string(string, key)
  %r{#{key}=>\"([^"]+)}.match(string)[1]
end

extract_value_from_string(string, 'description')
=> "description 1"
extract_value_from_string(string, 'name')
=> "name 1"

answered May 21, 2015 at 16:26

JCorcuera

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mikeymurph77 Over a year ago

Thank you.... I ended up just using /\:description=>\"([^"]+)/.match(string) and it worked like a charm. Thanks!

Nader Hisham · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-21 16:26:39Z

0

try this regex to retrieve both name and description at one step

(?<=name=>\\"|description=>\\")[^\\]+

try this Demo

I know this demo is using PCRE but I've tested also on http://rubular.com/ and it works fine

and if you want to get them separately use this regex is to extract name (?<=name=>\\")[^\\]+ and this for description (?<=description=>\\")[^\\]+

edited May 21, 2015 at 16:26

answered May 21, 2015 at 16:16

Nader Hisham

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1 Comment

mikeymurph77 Over a year ago

Not sure why but it works in Rubular but in my controller when I try p description = /(?<=description=>\\")[^\\]+/.match(string) it returns nil

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