Remove character from string if it starts with that character?

Question

How can I remove the very first "1" from any string if that string starts with a "1"?

"1hello world" => "hello world"
"112345" => "12345"

I'm thinking of doing

string.sub!('1', '') if string =~ /^1/

but I' wondering there's a better way. Thanks!

Answer 1

Why not just include the regex in the sub! method?

string.sub!(/^1/, '')

Answer 2

if you're going to use regex for the match, you may as well use it for the replacement

string.sub!(%r{^1},"")

BTW, the %r{} is just an alternate syntax for regular expressions. You can use %r followed by any character e.g. %r!^1!.

Answer 3

Careful using sub!(/^1/,'') ! In case the string doesn't match /^1/ it will return nil. You should probably use sub (without the bang).