# crazy string issues

**URL:** <https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/crazy-string-issues/42249>\
**Category:** rubyonrails-talk\
**Created:** [May 6, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/crazy-string-issues/42249 "2009-05-06T10:10:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phil6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71e660/32.png) [@phil6](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/phil6)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/crazy-string-issues/42249/1 "2009-05-06T10:10:22Z")

</div>

I can't believe I am having to stoop to asking such a stupid question!

I want a string that I am sending out to launch a process on windows. The string has to look like this:

myapp --actx="\\.\DISPLAY3"

I cannot figure out how to get this into a string variable in ruby!

> display = "\\.\DISPLAY3"

=\> "\\.DISPLAY3"

> > display.inspect

=\> "\"\\\\.DISPLAY3\""

> > display = "\\.\\DISPLAY3"

=\> "\\.\\DISPLAY3"

> > display.inspect

=\> "\"\\\\.\\\\DISPLAY3\""

How can I get a single slash into a string?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tony\_Byrne](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/rubyonrails/user_avatar/discuss.rubyonrails.org/tony_byrne/32/11570_2.png) [@Tony\_Byrne](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Tony_Byrne)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 11:31am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/crazy-string-issues/42249/2 "2009-05-06T11:31:12Z")

</div>

Hi Phil,

> I cannot figure out how to get this into a string variable in ruby!

display = "\\\\.\\DISPLAY3"

puts display

--\> \\.\DISPLAY3

I think the reason you were having problems is that irb shows the string complete with escaping characters. You need to output the string to see what it actually contains.

Regards,

Tony.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Arpit\_Jain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Arpit\_Jain](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/Arpit_Jain)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 11:38am UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/crazy-string-issues/42249/3 "2009-05-06T11:38:48Z")

</div>

"inspect" shows the string with escaped characters..

Tony Byrne wrote:

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![phil6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/71e660/32.png) [@phil6](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/u/phil6)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2009, 12:05pm UTC](https://discuss.rubyonrails.org/t/crazy-string-issues/42249/4 "2009-05-06T12:05:00Z")

</div>

Thanks guys!