re = /(# the number at the beginning
[-+]? # optional leading sign
\d+# the digits to the left of the decimal
(?:\.\d+)? # an optional decimal amount
)
(#the start of the units
[a-zA-Z]+ # must be alphabetic
(?: # followed optionally by zero-or-more
\/[a-zA-Z]+ # slash-followed-by-text as in \/hr
|
\^[-+]?\d+(?:\.\d+)? # a caret followed by our same\/initial digit pattern
)*
)/mx
str = 'Very much a stupid beginner question, but trying to make a regex expression which would take in "5ms-1", "17km/h" or "9ms^-2" etc. with these ambiguous units and ambiguous formats. Please help, I can\'t manage it
-5mph
6.8m/h
+8liters/hectacre^2
'
# Print the match result
str.scan(re) do |match|
puts match.to_s
end
Please keep in mind that these code samples are automatically generated and are not guaranteed to work. If you find any syntax errors, feel free to submit a bug report. For a full regex reference for Ruby, please visit: http://ruby-doc.org/core-2.2.0/Regexp.html