Forward Slash
The forward slash (/) is used in Ruby primarily for division and regex (regular expression) literals. We'll also see it used to append Pathname parts.
Division
We can use the forward slash to divide two numbers, such as integers or floats.
> 10 / 2
=> 5
> 10.0 / 3
=> 3.3333333333333335
Head over to the division operator page for more details on how division works in Ruby.
Regex Literals
The standard way to define a regex literal is by wrapping the pattern in a pair of / characters.
> email_regex = /\A.*@.*\z/
=> /\A.*@.*\z/
> email_regex.match('[email protected]')
=> #<MatchData "[email protected]">
> email_regex.match('Bob Burgers')
=> nil
Head over to the regex literal page for more details on how regex literals work in Ruby.
Append to a Pathname
> base_path = Pathname('~/')
=> #<Pathname:~/>
> base_path / 'code' / 'til'
=> #<Pathname:~/code/til>