How to parse decimal numbers within a string
Antonio Cangiano February 5th, 2006
INPUT: a string containing decimal numbers.
OUTPUT: an array containing all the decimal numbers within the given string.
You can accomplish this task very quickly with the String#scan method and the right Regular Expression (regex).
Given a string s, you can use:
numbers = s.scan /[-+]?\d*\.?\d+/numbers will be an array whose elements are the decimal numbers within the string s. Note how the regex considers the possible + or – signs in front of the numbers.
If you also wish to match floating point numbers with exponents (scientific notation, e.g. 2.54.e-07), then use the following:
numbers = s.scan /[-+]?\d*\.?\d+([eE][-+]?\d+)?/ 
