Ruby String Methods (Ultimate Guide) - RubyGuides

2/6/2019 Ruby String Methods (Ultimate Guide) - RubyGuides
BECOME A BETTER DEVELOPER RUBY DEEP DIV
Ruby String Methods (Ultim

/ By Jesus Castello / 17 COMMENTS
A string is a sequence of characters.
Strings are objects so they have a lot of methods you can use to d
In this article you’ll discover the most useful Ruby string methods
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Contents [hide]
1 How to Get The String Length

2 What is String Interpolation?
3 How to Extract a Substring
4 How to Find Out If a String Contains Another String
5 How to Pad a Ruby String
6 Compare Strings Ignoring Case
7 How to Trim a String & Remove White Space
8 String Prefix & Suffix
9 Convert a String to An Array of Characters
10 Convert an Array to a String
11 Convert a String Into An Integer
12 Check If A String Is A Number
https://www.rubyguides.com/2018/01/ruby-string-methods/ 1/23
13 How to Append Characters

14 Iterate Over Characters Of a String in Ruby
15 How to Convert a String to Upper or Lowercase in Ruby
16 How to Create Multiline Strings
17 How to Replace Text Inside a String Using The Gsub Method
18 How to Remove the Last Character From a String
19 How to Change String Encodings
20 Counting Characters
21 Summary
21.1 Related
How to Get The String Leng

Easy:
"ruby".size
# 4

You can also use length , instead of size , they do the same thi
What is String Interpolation

String interpolation allows you to combine strings together:
name = "Jesus"
puts "Hello #{name}"
What some people don’t know is that you can have actual code ins
Here’s an example:
puts "The total is #{1+1}"
# "the total is 2"
Ruby calls the to_s method on the string interpolation block, this
string.
How to Extract a Substring

If you only want part of a string, instead of the whole string, then y
substring.
Like this:
string Share this post!

= "abc123" = Share q Tweet - Share
string[0,3]
# abc
string[3,3]
# 123
The first number is the starting index & the second number is how
You can also use a range if you want to do something like “get all t
Example:
string = "abc123"
string[0..-2]
# "abc12"
The first index is the starting index & the second index is the endin
second to last character, and -1 is the end of the string.
If you want to remove or replace the substring.
You can do this:
string[0..2] = ""
p string
# "123"
How to Find Out If a String C

Another String
What’s the easiest way to find if a string is included in another strin
The include? method:
string = "Today is Saturday"
string.include?("Saturday")
# true
You can also use the index method:
string = "Today is Sunday"
string.index("day")
# 2
This method looks for partial words & instead of returning true or
the start of this string is found.
In this example index is finding the “day” in “Today”.
If you want to find patterns (like all the words containing the word
expressions.
How to Pad a Ruby String

One way to pad a string is to use the rjust method with two arg

binary_string = "1101"
binary_string.rjust(8, "0")
# "00001101"
If you want to pad to the right you can use ljust :
binary_string = "1111"
binary_string.ljust(8, "0")
# "11110000"
Compare Strings Ignoring C

Because string comparison is case-sensitive you want to make su

are in the same case.
The common way to do that is to make both sides of the equation
Example:
lang1 = "ruby"
lang2 = "Ruby"
lang1.upcase == lang2.upcase
There is also a casecmp? method that does a case-insensitive co
Stick with the example above.
How to Trim a String & Rem

Space
When reading data from a file or a website you may find yourself w
You can remove that extra space with the strip method:
extra_space = " test "

extra_space.strip
# "test"
If you only want to remove the white space from one of the sides (
rstrip methods instead.
String Pre x & Su x

You can use the start_with? method to check if a string starts
string = "ruby programming"
string.start_with? "ruby"
# true
There’s also an end_with? method:
string = "ruby programming"
string.end_with? "programming"
# true

In addition, Ruby 2.5 introduced the delete_prefix & delete
useful to you.
string = "bacon is expensive"
string.delete_suffix(" is expensive")
# "bacon"
Convert a String to An Array

Taking a string & breaking it down into an array of characters is ea
Example:
string = "a b c d"
string.split
# ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
By default split will use a space as the separator character, but

method to specify a different separator.
Here’s how you can split a list of comma-separated values (CSV):
csv = "a,b,c,d"
string.split(",")
# ["a", "b", "c", "d"]
But if you are working with CSV data specifically you may want to c
standard library. This class can do things like reading column head
Convert an Array to a String

If you would like to take an array of strings & join these strings into
method.
Example:
arr = ['a', 'b', 'c']
arr.join
# "abc"
It’s also possible to pass an argument to join , this argument is t
Example:
arr = ['a', 'b', 'c']
arr.join("-")
# "a-b-c"
Convert a String Into An Int

If you want to convert a string like "49" into the Integer 49 you c
Example:
"49".to_i
Notice that if you try this with a string that contains no numbers th
Example:
"a".to_i
# 0
Check If A String Is A Numb

Would you like to know if a string is made of only whole numbers?
You can do this:
"123".match?(/\A-?\d+\Z/)
# true
"123bb".match?(/\A-?\d+\Z/)
# false
“ Note: The match? method was introduced in Ruby 2.4, you c

mark) on older versions.
This code uses a regular expression, let me translate it for you:
“From the start of the string ( \A ) check if there is an optional das

make sure there are some numbers in there ( \d+ ) & nothing else
How to Append Characters

You can build up a big string from smaller strings by appending ch
call this string concatenation.
Here’s how to do that using the << method:
string = ""
string << "hello"

string << " "
string << "there"
# "hello there"
Don't use += for string concatenation because that will create a n

for performance!
Iterate Over Characters Of a

Sometimes it's useful to work with the individual characters of a st
One way to do that is to use the each_char method:
"rubyguides".each_char { |ch| puts ch }
You can also use the chars method to convert the string into an
each on this array to iterate.
Example:
array_of_characters = "rubyguides".chars
# ["r", "u", "b", "y", "g", "u", "i", "d", "e", "s"]
How to Convert a String to U

Lowercase in Ruby
If you would like to convert a string to all upper case you can use t
Example:
"abcd".upcase
# "ABCD"
And if you want to convert to lower case you can use the downca
Example:
"ABCD".downcase
# "abcd"
How to Create Multiline Str

You can create multi-line strings in two different ways.
One is by using heredocs:

b = <<-STRING
aaa
bbb
ccc
STRING
And another is by using %Q :
a = %Q(aaa
bbb
ccc
)
How to Replace Text Inside

The Gsub Method
If you want to replace text inside a string use the gsub method.
Let's replace the word "dogs" with "cats":
string = "We have many dogs"
string.gsub("dogs", "cats")
# "We have many cats"
If you want to remove the string use an empty string as the 2nd ar
Example:

string = "abccc"
string.gsub("c", "")
# "ab"
Now:
The gsub method returns a new string.
If you want to apply the changes to the original string you can use
The gsub method also takes regular expressions as an argument s

exact words.
Here's an example:
string = "We have 3 cats"
string.gsub(/\d+/, "5")
# "We have 5 cats"
This replaces all the numbers ( \d+ ) in the string with the number
Replace Text in Ruby
One more way to use this method, with a block:
title = "the lord of the rings"
title.gsub(/\w+/) { |word| word.capitalize }
# "The Lord Of The Rings"
What about gsub vs sub ?
Well, sub is the same as gsub , but it will only replace the first ma
Gsub replaces ALL matches.
How to Remove the Last Ch

String
If you are asking the user for some input (using the Kernel#gets m
character ( \n ) at the end of your string, this prevents you from co
Example:

puts "What's your name?"
name = gets
# type something...
The best way to remove that extra newline character ( \n ) is to us
Example:
name = gets.chomp
Since Ruby 2.3 the chomp method takes an optional argument tha
you want to remove.
Example:
"abcd?".chomp("?")
# "abcd"
And if the character is not there it will return the original string.
How to Change String Enco

Strings are stored as a sequence of bytes, they are turned into the
their encoding.
For example, the number 65 in the ASCII encoding represents the
But there are also more complex encodings, like UTF-8, which allo
different languages (Chinese, etc.) & even emojis.
To find out the current encoding for a string you can use the enco
"abc".encoding
# Encoding:UTF-8
When reading a file from disk or downloading some data from a w

problems.
You can often fix that problem by enforcing the encoding .
Like this:
"abc".force_encoding("UTF-8")
Counting Characters
You can count how many times a characters appears in a string by
Example:
str = "aaab"
str.count("a")
# 3
str.count("b")
# 1
Summary Share this post! = Share q Tweet - Share
You learned about many string methods, like join & split to break d
replace text inside strings & strip to trim out extra white space.
Since you may want to reference this page later make sure to book
friends
Thanks for reading!
Related
How to Use Ruby Conversion Methods Why Do We Use Nil?

September 18, 2018 May 30, 2018
In "Programming" In "Programming"
Share this post!
 Tweet  Share
17 comments
Maddox says
last year
Nice post. Very helpful roundup and explanation of st

Jesus Castello says

last year
Thanks for reading!
Tom Connolly says

last year
Thanks for your informative posts. Just the right size
Jesus Castello says

last year
Thanks for reading Tom! Let me know if there is a

to cover
David C says
last year
Really love your guides, simple, effective to the point.

Jesus Castello says

last year
Thanks David! I’m glad you find them useful
Abdullah H says
last year
In your post, you mentioned the method ‘casecmp?’

string comparisons. However, you also recommende
comparing up/downcased strings.
What is the downside to using ‘casecmp?’?
Jesus Castello says

last year
Abdullah, I don’t think there is any real downside,

would use in Ruby.
Share this post! = Share Tweet - Share

Tara saysq
last year
I found your page because I was trying to fi

downcase with the spaceship operator to
up demanding casecmp, and we use rubo
faster when benchmarking, which is why I
us that way. Meanwhile, I’m still not gettin
need to disable rubocop there, but that’s n
Jesus Castello says

last year
Taking a look at the source code of

performance rule.
The example given is this:
str.casecmp('ABC').zero?
I don’t like this at all, so I would avo

performance boost.
Tara says
last year
Share this post! = Share q Tweet

- Share
I ended up getting it to work just fin
process our pull requests, as did th
start seeing more of it. In any case,
piece of info helps out here!
Simon says
last year
Hi there! Great article, I am missing “<<~ curly doc”, m
Keep up the good work and thank you so much for th
Jesus Castello says

last year
Hi Simon! Thanks for reading
Matthew Bell says

last year
In your “How to Remove the Last Character From a S

says “And if the character is not there it will return the
string not array. Love the article though it didn’t occu
string object every time and String#<< does proper st
string! Cheers.
Jesus Castello says

last year
Good catch! It’s fixed now, thank you.
Tushar Kulkarni says

last year
Thanks. This was very informative and helpful.
Jesus Castello says

last year
Thanks for reading
Comments are closed
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2/6/2019 Ruby String Methods (Ultimate Guide) - RubyGuides

BECOME A BETTER DEVELOPER RUBY DEEP DIV

Ruby String Methods (Ultim

A string is a sequence of characters.

Share this post! = Share q Tweet - Share

1 How to Get The String Length

13 How to Append Characters

How to Get The String Leng

Share this post! = Share q Tweet - Share

What is String Interpolation

puts "Hello #{name}"

puts "The total is #{1+1}"

# "the total is 2"

How to Extract a Substring

string Share this post!

If you want to remove or replace the substring.

You can do this:

How to Find Out If a String C

The include? method:

string = "Today is Saturday"

You can also use the index method:

string = "Today is Sunday"

In this example index is ﬁnding the “day” in “Today”.

How to Pad a Ruby String

Share this post! = Share q Tweet - Share

If you want to pad to the right you can use ljust :

Compare Strings Ignoring C

Because string comparison is case-sensitive you want to make su

The common way to do that is to make both sides of the equation

There is also a casecmp? method that does a case-insensitive co

Stick with the example above.

How to Trim a String & Rem

extra_space = " test "

String Pre x & Su x

string = "ruby programming"

There’s also an end_with? method:

string = "ruby programming"

Share this post! = Share q Tweet - Share

string = "bacon is expensive"

Convert a String to An Array

Taking a string & breaking it down into an array of characters is ea

string = "a b c d"

By default split will use a space as the separator character, but

Here’s how you can split a list of comma-separated values (CSV):

Convert an Array to a String

arr = ['a', 'b', 'c']

It’s also possible to pass an argument to join , this argument is t

arr = ['a', 'b', 'c']

Convert a String Into An Int

Check If A String Is A Numb

Would you like to know if a string is made of only whole numbers?

You can do this:

“ Note: The match? method was introduced in Ruby 2.4, you c

This code uses a regular expression, let me translate it for you:

“From the start of the string ( \A ) check if there is an optional das

How to Append Characters

Here’s how to do that using the << method:

string << "hello"

Don't use += for string concatenation because that will create a n

Iterate Over Characters Of a

One way to do that is to use the each_char method:

"rubyguides".each_char { |ch| puts ch }

How to Convert a String to U