I have the following output:
time = 15:40:32.81
and I want to eliminate : and the . so that it looks like this:
15403281
I tried doing a time.gsub(/\:\s/'')
but that didn't work.
Thanks for your help in advance
views:
50answers:
4
+3
A:
time = '15:40:32.81'
numeric_time = time.gsub(/[^0-9]+/, '')
# numeric_time will be 15403281
[^0-9] specifies a character class containing any character which is not a digit (^ at the beginning of a class negates it), which will then be replaced by an empty string (or, in other words, removed).
(Updated to replace \d with 0-9 for clarity, though they are equivalent).
Daniel Vandersluis
2010-08-18 18:26:28
Thanks for all your help!
rahrahruby
2010-08-18 18:50:40
The + isn't necessary; time.gsub(/[^\d]/,"") works just as well.
todb
2010-08-18 20:10:40
@todb true, but it'll cause a bigger chunk of the string to be replaced at once if multiple non-numeric characters appear in a row.
Daniel Vandersluis
2010-08-18 20:13:29
On such a short string, neither variation matters a whole lot. :) I also never use [^\d]. [^0-9] is only one more character and I think it lends reading clarity. I have no idea if there's a performance difference between the two.
todb
2010-08-18 20:29:42
@todb As far as I know, if there is any difference it would be negligible. `\D` could have been used instead of the character class, for that matter.
Daniel Vandersluis
2010-08-18 20:37:49
+2
A:
If you want to be fancy and use an actual time object...
time = Time.now
time.strftime("%H%M%S") + time.usec.to_s[0,2]
# returns "15151788"
todb
2010-08-18 20:15:43
A:
time.delete ':.'
But it'll edit your variable. If you don't want it:
time.dup.delete ':.'
Nakilon
2010-09-28 22:52:37