Question

I’m analyzing some code and I’m looking for string literals, to check if I have any duplicates. For example, if I have

def test_foo
  input_filename = "foo.txt"
  # ...
end

def test_bar
  input_filename = "bar.txt" # Fine
  # ...
end

def test_baz
  # Bad! Refactor it to a constant that's shared by test_foo and test_baz
  input_filename = "foo.txt" 
  # ...
end

I want the analysis program to tell me that ["foo.txt", "bar.txt", "foo.txt"] exist in my source code.

How can I do this?

Answer 1

If you install ruby_parser or parsetree, you’ll be able to do something like this (assuming that the program text is in text):

result = RubyParser.new.parse(text)
result.flatten.to_a.select {|elt| elt.is_a?(String)}

(This could obviously be nicer, but it should be enough to get you started!)