2008/1/7, Johnathan Smith <stu_09 / hotmail.com>: > just a quick question > > what is the difference between greedy and non greedy quantifiers? The greediness. Seriously: why don't you just try it out in IRB? s=("a"*10 + "b") s+=s s.scan /\w+b/ s.scan /\w+?b/ Cheers robert -- use.inject do |as, often| as.you_can - without end