You can delimit strings by %q/ and / for single-quoted strings and either %Q/ and / or %/ and / for double-quoted strings.
Ruby can delimit back-quoted strings, regular expressions, symbols, and arrays of either single-quoted or double-quoted strings.
Here is a reference to these string literal delimiters:
%q/ / # single-quoted %Q/ / # double-quoted %/ / # double-quoted %w/ / # array %W/ / # array double-quoted %r| | # regular expression %s/ / # symbol %x/ / # operating system command
You may choose which delimiters to use.
I have used / except with the regular expression where I have used | (since / is the "normal" regular expression delimiter).
Here is an example of these literals in use:
p %q/test cat #{1+2}/ #=> "test cat \#{1+2}" p %Q/test cat #{1+2}/ #=> "test cat 3" p %/test cat #{1+2}/ #=> "test cat 3" p %w/test cat #{1+2}/ #=> ["test", "cat", "\#{1+2}"] p %W/test cat #{1+2}/ #=> ["test", "cat", "3"] p %r|^[a-z]*$| #=> /^[a-z]*$/ p %s/test/ #=> :test p %x/dir/ #=> " Volume in drive C is OS [etc...]" # from w w w. j ava 2s. c o m