Ruby multiple string replacement

Since Ruby 1.9.2, String#gsub accepts hash as a second parameter for replacement with matched keys. You can use a regular expression to match the substring that needs to be replaced and pass hash for values to be replaced.

Like this:

'hello'.gsub(/[eo]/, 'e' => 3, 'o' => '*')    #=> "h3ll*"
'(0) 123-123.123'.gsub(/[()-,. ]/, '')    #=> "0123123123"

In Ruby 1.8.7, you would achieve the same with a block:

dict = { 'e' => 3, 'o' => '*' }
'hello'.gsub /[eo]/ do |match|
   dict[match.to_s]
 end #=> "h3ll*"

Set up a mapping table:

map = {'☺' => ':)', '☹' => ':(' }

Then build a regex:

re = Regexp.new(map.keys.map { |x| Regexp.escape(x) }.join('|'))

And finally, gsub:

s = str.gsub(re, map)

If you're stuck in 1.8 land, then:

s = str.gsub(re) { |m| map[m] }

You need the Regexp.escape in there in case anything you want to replace has a special meaning within a regex. Or, thanks to steenslag, you could use:

re = Regexp.union(map.keys)

and the quoting will be take care of for you.