Question

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Split Ruby regex over multiple lines

If I have a really long regex in ruby, how do I separate it into multiple lines to make it more readable?

Is there a simple way to do this?

      line.regexp = /^([^\ ]+) ([^\ ]+) \[(#{timestamp('%d/%b/%Y:%H:%M:%S %z')})?\] (#{ip_address}) ([^\ ]+) ([^\ ]+) (\w+(?:\.\w+)*) ([^\ ]+) "([^"]+)" (\d+) ([^\ ]+) (\d+) (\d+) (\d+) (\d+) "([^"]*)" "([^"]*)"/

Answer 1

I can think of three ways to make your code more readable. Use:

1. The /x modifier and add comments with #.
2. Inline comments with the (?#comment_here) modifier.
3. Named groups; For example: (?<year>\d{2,4}) is useful for backreferencing or manipulating values afterwards.

More information:
http://www.ruby-doc.org/core-1.9.3/Regexp.html