Zip a string in memory Ruby

Question

Is there a way to zip a string (either with a gem or standard lib) so that I can get the zipped result of a string? Example:

"hello world".zip #=> zipped version of string

Also, decompression would be nice if someone could include that in their solution.

Answer 1

You can use Zlib

>> require 'zlib'
=> true
>> s = "this is a long string with many many many many repetition"
=> "this is a long string with many many many many repetition"
>> s.size
=> 57
>> cs = Zlib.deflate(s)
=> "x\x9C+\xC9\xC8,V\x00\xA2D\x85\x9C\xFC\xBCt\x85\xE2\x92\xA2L U\x9EY\x92\xA1\x90\x9B\x98W\x89N\x14\xA5\x16\xA4\x96d\x96d\xE6\xE7\x01\x00\\?\x15P"
>> cs.size
=> 48
>> is = Zlib.inflate(cs)
=> "this is a long string with many many many many repetition"

Answer 2

I'd like to refer you to this nice answer by vas, it details the rubyzip gem, which, as you can see in the documentation has input and outputstream objects and should do exactly what you want.