Question

I have a string like so:

"@[30:Larry Middleton]"

I want to return just 30. Where 30 will always be digits, and can be of 1 to infinity in length.

I’ve tried:

user_id = result.match(/@\[(\d+):.*]/)

But that returns everything. How can I get back just 30?

Answer 1

If that’s really all your string, you don’t need to match the rest of the pattern; just match the consecutive integers:

irb(main):001:0> result = "@[30:Larry Middleton]"
#=> "@[30:Larry Middleton]"
irb(main):002:0> result[/\d+/]
#=> "30"

However, if you need to match this as part of a larger string that might have digits elsewhere:

irb(main):004:0> result[/@\[(\d+):.*?\]/]
#=> "@[30:Larry Middleton]"
irb(main):005:0> result[/@\[(\d+):.*?\]/,1]
#=> "30"
irb(main):006:0> result[/@\[(\d+):.*?\]/,1].to_i
#=> 30

If you need the name also:

irb(main):002:0> m = result.match /@\[(\d+):(.*?)\]/
#=> #<MatchData "@[30:Larry Middleton]" 1:"30" 2:"Larry Middleton">
irb(main):003:0> m[1]
#=> "30"
irb(main):004:0> m[2]
#=> "Larry Middleton"

In Ruby 1.9 you can even name the matches, instead of using the capture number:

irb(main):005:0> m = result.match /@\[(?<id>\d+):(?<name>.*?)\]/
#=> #<MatchData "@[30:Larry Middleton]" id:"30" name:"Larry Middleton">
irb(main):006:0> m[:id]
#=> "30"
irb(main):007:0> m[:name]
#=> "Larry Middleton"

And if you need to find many of these:

irb(main):008:0> result = "First there was @[30:Larry Middleton], age 17, and then there was @[42:Phrogz], age unknown."
#irb(main):015:0> result.scan /@\[(\d+):.*?\]/
#=> [["30"], ["42"]]
irb(main):016:0> result.scan(/@\[(\d+):.*?\]/).flatten.map(&:to_i)
#=> [30, 42]
irb(main):017:0> result.scan(/@\[(\d+):(.*?)\]/).each{ |id,name| puts "#{name} is #{id}" }
Larry is 30
Phrogz is 42