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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-06T07:31:31+00:00

I need a one line gsub to replace all the non-digits in a string

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I need a one line gsub to replace all the non-digits in a string but only if the non-digits are not more than three and if the total length of the digits is 10

I have this which fits the first condition

p "0177/385490".gsub(/((\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?+(\d+))/,'\2\3\4\5') 
#=>"0177385490"

but when i try this the {10} check doesn’t work

p "0177/385490".gsub(/((\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?+(\d+)){10}/,'\2\3\4\5') 
#=>"0177/385490"

how to do this please ?

EDIT

i managed to to it like this, but how to do this in a oneline gsub ?

strings = [
   "0473/385 490",
   "0473/385490",
   "0473 38 54 90",
   "0473/385 4901"    #this one is't captured
 ]

 strings.each do |s|
   if /((\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?+(\d+))/ =~ s
     if "#{$2}#{$3}#{$4}#{$5}".length == 10
       puts "#{$2}#{$3}#{$4}#{$5}"
     end
   end
 end

EDIT: to show why it really needs to be a onle line gsub here my routine, there will be more replacements added

def cleanup text
  replacements = [
     {:pattern => /(04\d{2}) (\d{2}) (\d{2}) (\d{2})/, :replace_with => '\1\2\3\4'},
     {:pattern => /(0\d)(\/| |-)(\d{3}) (\d{2}) (\d{2})/, :replace_with => '\1\3\4\5'},
     {:pattern => /(\d{6} )(\d{3})-(\d{2})/, :replace_with => '\1\2 \3'},
     {:pattern => /(\d{2,4})\D?(\d{2,3})\D?(\d{2,3})/, :replace_with => '\1\2\3'}
  ].each{|replacement|text.gsub!(replacement[:pattern], replacement[:replace_with])}
  text
end
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    Thanks everyone but i can’t use the answers because i can’t insert them in my routine (edited my answer to make that more clear). Found a sollution myself. I give everyone an upvote who had a one line solution as requested, now i still need to find a way to insert my block as a replacementpattern in the cleanup routine

    p "0177/3854901".gsub(/(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?+(\d+)/){ |m| "#{$1}#{$2}#{$3}#{$4}".length==10 ? "#{$1}#{$2}#{$3}#{$4}":m} 
#=> "0177/3854901" isn't replaced because it has 11 digits
p "0177/385490".gsub(/(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?(\d+)\D?+(\d+)/){ |m| "#{$1}#{$2}#{$3}#{$4}".length==10 ? "#{$1}#{$2}#{$3}#{$4}":m} 
#=> "0177385490"
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