Dear Ruby List: I'm trying to add one hr, to some time strings: "1:12:00" --> "2:12:00" (i don't need to worry about 24) Mi first try was ... "1:12:00".gsub(/(^\d?\w)/,$1.to_i.succ.to_s) Now I know that if I do this, at the time of the replacement $1 will be empty. could you illuminate myself with some ruby/intelligent way to achieve this ? Thanks.