Using Ruby on a string, how can I slice between two parts of the string using RegEx?

Question

I just want to save the text between two specific points in a string into a variable. The text would look like this:

..."content"=>"The text I want to save to a variable"}]...

I suppose I would have to use scan or slice, but not exactly sure how to pull out just the text without grabbing the RegEx identifiers before and after the text. I tried this, but it didn't work:

var = mystring.slice(/\"content\"\=\>\".\"/)

Answer 1

This should do the job

var = mystring[/"content"=>"(.*)"/, 1]

Note that:

• .slice aliases []
• none of the characters you escaped are special regexp characters where you're using them
• you can "group" the bit you want to keep with ()
• .slice / [] take a second parameter to pick a matched group

Answer 2

your_text = '"content"=>"The text I want to save to a variable"'
/"content"=>"(?<hooray>.*)"/ =~ your_text

Afterwards, hooray local variable will be magically set to contain your text. Can be used to set multiple variables.