Method: String#=~

Defined in:

string.c

#=~(obj) ⇒ Integer^?

Match—If obj is a Regexp, use it as a pattern to match against str,and returns the position the match starts, or nil if there is no match. Otherwise, invokes obj.=~, passing str as an argument. The default =~ in Object returns nil.

Note: str =~ regexp is not the same as regexp =~ str. Strings captured from named capture groups are assigned to local variables only in the second case.

"cat o' 9 tails" =~ /\d/   #=> 7
"cat o' 9 tails" =~ 9      #=> nil

Returns:

• (Integer, nil)

# File 'string.c', line 3787

static VALUE
rb_str_match(VALUE x, VALUE y)
{
    if (SPECIAL_CONST_P(y)) goto generic;
    switch (BUILTIN_TYPE(y)) {
      case T_STRING:
	rb_raise(rb_eTypeError, "type mismatch: String given");

      case T_REGEXP:
	return rb_reg_match(y, x);

      generic:
      default:
	return rb_funcall(y, idEqTilde, 1, x);
    }
}