Question

Hi I ran across something unexpected and can’t find an answer anywhere..

I have a hash:

hash = {:thiskey => /value/, :anotherkey => /anothervalue/}

When I iterate over the hash like this:

hash.each do |key, value| 
   puts key
   puts value
end

If the value is regex /calendar/ …. the iterator produces:

>>> thiskey
>>>(?-mix:calendar)

Any thoughts on why this is?

Thanks!

Answer 1

The (?-mix:calendar) is the string representation of the regular expression when using ruby.

>> a = /test(er)/
=> /test(er)/
>> print a.source
test(er)=> nil
>> print a
(?-mix:test(er))=> nil
>>