How do I remove leading whitespace chars from Ruby HEREDOC?

Question

I\'m having a problem with a Ruby heredoc i\'m trying to make. It\'s returning the leading whitespace from each line even though i\'m including the - operator, which is supp

Answer 1

Not much to do that I know of I'm afraid. I usually do:

def distinct_count
    <<-EOF.gsub /^\s+/, ""
        \tSELECT
        \t CAST('#{name}' AS VARCHAR(30)) as COLUMN_NAME
        \t,COUNT(DISTINCT #{name}) AS DISTINCT_COUNT
        \tFROM #{table.call}
    EOF
end

That works but is a bit of a hack.

EDIT: Taking inspiration from Rene Saarsoo below, I'd suggest something like this instead:

class String
  def unindent 
    gsub(/^#{scan(/^\s*/).min_by{|l|l.length}}/, "")
  end
end

def distinct_count
    <<-EOF.unindent
        \tSELECT
        \t CAST('#{name}' AS VARCHAR(30)) as COLUMN_NAME
        \t,COUNT(DISTINCT #{name}) AS DISTINCT_COUNT
        \tFROM #{table.call}
    EOF
end

This version should handle when the first line is not the one farthest to the left too.