[ruby] How to match all occurrences of a regex

Is there a quick way to find every match of a regular expression in Ruby? I've looked through the Regex object in the Ruby STL and searched on Google to no avail.

To find all the matching strings, use String's scan method.

str = "A 54mpl3 string w1th 7 numb3rs scatter36 ar0und"
str.scan(/\d+/)
#=> ["54", "3", "1", "7", "3", "36", "0"]

If you want, MatchData, which is the type of the object returned by the Regexp match method, use:

str.to_enum(:scan, /\d+/).map { Regexp.last_match }
#=> [#<MatchData "54">, #<MatchData "3">, #<MatchData "1">, #<MatchData "7">, #<MatchData "3">, #<MatchData "36">, #<MatchData "0">]

The benefit of using MatchData is that you can use methods like offset:

match_datas = str.to_enum(:scan, /\d+/).map { Regexp.last_match }
match_datas[0].offset(0)
#=> [2, 4]
match_datas[1].offset(0)
#=> [7, 8]

See these questions if you'd like to know more:

• "How do I get the match data for all occurrences of a Ruby regular expression in a string?"
• "Ruby regular expression matching enumerator with named capture support"
• "How to find out the starting point for each match in ruby"

Reading about special variables $&, $', $1, $2 in Ruby will be helpful too.

You can use string.scan(your_regex).flatten. If your regex contains groups, it will return in a single plain array.

string = "A 54mpl3 string w1th 7 numbers scatter3r ar0und"
your_regex = /(\d+)[m-t]/
string.scan(your_regex).flatten
=> ["54", "1", "3"]

Regex can be a named group as well.

string = 'group_photo.jpg'
regex = /\A(?<name>.*)\.(?<ext>.*)\z/
string.scan(regex).flatten

You can also use gsub, it's just one more way if you want MatchData.

str.gsub(/\d/).map{ Regexp.last_match }

To find all the matching strings, use String's scan method.

str = "A 54mpl3 string w1th 7 numb3rs scatter36 ar0und"
str.scan(/\d+/)
#=> ["54", "3", "1", "7", "3", "36", "0"]

If you want, MatchData, which is the type of the object returned by the Regexp match method, use:

str.to_enum(:scan, /\d+/).map { Regexp.last_match }
#=> [#<MatchData "54">, #<MatchData "3">, #<MatchData "1">, #<MatchData "7">, #<MatchData "3">, #<MatchData "36">, #<MatchData "0">]

The benefit of using MatchData is that you can use methods like offset:

match_datas = str.to_enum(:scan, /\d+/).map { Regexp.last_match }
match_datas[0].offset(0)
#=> [2, 4]
match_datas[1].offset(0)
#=> [7, 8]

See these questions if you'd like to know more:

• "How do I get the match data for all occurrences of a Ruby regular expression in a string?"
• "Ruby regular expression matching enumerator with named capture support"
• "How to find out the starting point for each match in ruby"

Reading about special variables $&, $', $1, $2 in Ruby will be helpful too.

if you have a regexp with groups:

str="A 54mpl3 string w1th 7 numbers scatter3r ar0und"
re=/(\d+)[m-t]/

you can use String's scan method to find matching groups:

str.scan re
#> [["54"], ["1"], ["3"]]

To find the matching pattern:

str.to_enum(:scan,re).map {$&}
#> ["54m", "1t", "3r"]

You can use string.scan(your_regex).flatten. If your regex contains groups, it will return in a single plain array.

string = "A 54mpl3 string w1th 7 numbers scatter3r ar0und"
your_regex = /(\d+)[m-t]/
string.scan(your_regex).flatten
=> ["54", "1", "3"]

Regex can be a named group as well.

string = 'group_photo.jpg'
regex = /\A(?<name>.*)\.(?<ext>.*)\z/
string.scan(regex).flatten

You can also use gsub, it's just one more way if you want MatchData.

str.gsub(/\d/).map{ Regexp.last_match }

if you have a regexp with groups:

str="A 54mpl3 string w1th 7 numbers scatter3r ar0und"
re=/(\d+)[m-t]/

you can use String's scan method to find matching groups:

str.scan re
#> [["54"], ["1"], ["3"]]

To find the matching pattern:

str.to_enum(:scan,re).map {$&}
#> ["54m", "1t", "3r"]