RegEx Help in Ruby

Question

My sample file is like below:

H343423     Something1          Something2                                                
C343423              0   
A23423432     asdfasdf sdfs 
#2342323

I have the following regex:

if (line =~ /^[HC]\d+\s/) != nil 
  puts line
end

Basically I want to read everything that starts with H or C and is followed by numbers and I want to stop reading when space is encountered (I want to read one word).

Output I want is:

H343423
C343423

Output my RegEx is getting is:

H343423     Something1          Something2                                                
C343423              0   

So it is fetching the whole line but I just want it to stop after first word is read.

Any help?

Answer 1

if (line =~ /^([HC]\d+)/)
  puts $1
end

For more info, see

• Use Round Brackets for Grouping

If you don't want to use brackets, there is special variable for the match item $&

Following will do the same

if line =~ /^[HC]\d+/
  puts $&
end