re = /(?:\b| )([.,:;!]+)(?: |\b)/m
str = 'Hi!stack overflow... is a popular website, I visit it every day.
aaa...
AAA...BBB
AA .BBB #unlikely to happen but managed anyway
Test smilyeys :) :D -.- #One is done, Here the D can\'t be avoided'
subst = ' \\1 '
result = str.gsub(re, subst)
# Print the result of the substitution
puts result
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