Sorry for the simple question, I just can't figure this out after a couple hours... I need to parse a string: string = column-1:block-0,block-2,block-1,block-3 and I need to extract everything before the : (colon) into one variable (should end up like this: string1 = column-1 and then the rest of the string (block-0,block-2,block-1,block3) into an array... How can I use gsub to extract everything before the colon? I've looked at the documentation and just can't understand how to use the \` or \' syntax... I want the two new strings to be: string1 = column-1 string2 = ["block-0", "block-2", "block-1", "block-3"] I'm thinking it's something like this: string.gsub(/:/, "\`") really, I just don't get it... the documentation that I'm looking at is here: http://dev.rubycentral.com/ref/ref_c_string.html thanks a bunch! -Dustin -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.