Question

Is there a way to zip a string (either with a gem or standard lib) so that I can get the zipped result of a string? Example:

"hello world".zip #=> zipped version of string

Also, decompression would be nice if someone could include that in their solution.

Answer 1

You can use Zlib

>> require 'zlib'
=> true
>> s = "this is a long string with many many many many repetition"
=> "this is a long string with many many many many repetition"
>> s.size
=> 57
>> cs = Zlib.deflate(s)
=> "x\x9C+\xC9\xC8,V\x00\xA2D\x85\x9C\xFC\xBCt\x85\xE2\x92\xA2L U\x9EY\x92\xA1\x90\x9B\x98W\x89N\x14\xA5\x16\xA4\x96d\x96d\xE6\xE7\x01\x00\\?\x15P"
>> cs.size
=> 48
>> is = Zlib.inflate(cs)
=> "this is a long string with many many many many repetition"