Returns an array of substrings of self
that are the result of splitting self
at each occurrence of the given field separator field_sep
.
When field_sep
is $;
:
If $;
is nil
(its default value), the split occurs just as if field_sep
were given as a space character (see below).
If $;
is a string, the split ocurs just as if field_sep
were given as that string (see below).
When field_sep
is ' '
and limit
is nil
, the split occurs at each sequence of whitespace:
'abc def ghi'.split(' ') => ["abc", "def", "ghi"] "abc \n\tdef\t\n ghi".split(' ') # => ["abc", "def", "ghi"] 'abc def ghi'.split(' ') => ["abc", "def", "ghi"] ''.split(' ') => []
When field_sep
is a string different from ' '
and limit
is nil
, the split occurs at each occurrence of field_sep
; trailing empty substrings are not returned:
'abracadabra'.split('ab') => ["", "racad", "ra"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split('a') => ["", "", "", "bcd"] ''.split('a') => [] '3.14159'.split('1') => ["3.", "4", "59"] '!@#$%^$&*($)_+'.split('$') # => ["!@#", "%^", "&*(", ")_+"] 'тест'.split('т') => ["", "ес"] 'こんにちは'.split('に') => ["こん", "ちは"]
When field_sep
is a Regexp
and limit
is nil
, the split occurs at each occurrence of a match; trailing empty substrings are not returned:
'abracadabra'.split(/ab/) # => ["", "racad", "ra"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split(/a/) => ["", "", "", "bcd"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split(//) => ["a", "a", "a", "b", "c", "d", "a", "a", "a"] '1 + 1 == 2'.split(/\W+/) # => ["1", "1", "2"]
If the Regexp contains groups, their matches are also included in the returned array:
'1:2:3'.split(/(:)()()/, 2) # => ["1", ":", "", "", "2:3"]
As seen above, if limit
is nil
, trailing empty substrings are not returned; the same is true if limit
is zero:
'aaabcdaaa'.split('a') => ["", "", "", "bcd"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', 0) # => ["", "", "", "bcd"]
If limit
is positive integer n
, no more than n - 1-
splits occur, so that at most n
substrings are returned, and trailing empty substrings are included:
'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', 1) # => ["aaabcdaaa"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', 2) # => ["", "aabcdaaa"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', 5) # => ["", "", "", "bcd", "aa"] 'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', 7) # => ["", "", "", "bcd", "", "", ""] 'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', 8) # => ["", "", "", "bcd", "", "", ""]
Note that if field_sep
is a Regexp containing groups, their matches are in the returned array, but do not count toward the limit.
If limit
is negative, it behaves the same as if limit
was nil
, meaning that there is no limit, and trailing empty substrings are included:
'aaabcdaaa'.split('a', -1) # => ["", "", "", "bcd", "", "", ""]
If a block is given, it is called with each substring:
'abc def ghi'.split(' ') {|substring| p substring }
Output:
"abc" "def" "ghi"
Related: String#partition
, String#rpartition
.