How do I remove a character from array element?

Question

I have an array like this:

["ee", "3/4\"", "22\"", "22\""]

and I'd like to either remove the commas, \" or replace that with &#34 so that the array looks like this:

["ee", "3/4", "22", "22"]

or this:

["ee", "3/4&#34", "22&#34", "22&#34"]

The reason is that I'm trying to pass that array from Ruby to JavaScript, but I keep getting an "Unterminated string constant error" and I just can't figure out a way around it!

This is what I'm using to pass the info to JavaScript:

cut_list="from_ruby_cut(\""+c[1]+"\")"

Answer 1

To replace each element in an array with a modified version, such as replacing the unwanted character, you can use the map! function. Inside the block, use gsub to replace the unwanted " character.

array = ["ee", "3/4\"", "22\"", "22\""]

array.map!{ |element| element.gsub(/"/, '') }
array
#=> ["ee", "3/4", "22", "22"]

array.map!{ |element| element.gsub(/"/, '&#34') }
array
#=> ["ee", "3/4&#34", "22&#34", "22&#34"]

However, you may also be able to solve your problem by using c[1].inspect instead of c[1] when building your JavaScript string. If you use inspect, it'll print the string with the enclosing quotes included, and the backslash to escape the quote inside the string.