Split string by whitespace in Rails unexpected behavior - ruby-on-rails

Question

I want to split a string by whitespace
irb(main):001:0> input = "dog cat"
=> "dog cat"
irb(main):002:0> output = input.strip.split(/\s+/)
=> ["dog", "cat"]
This is good. However, I'm also doing this in the controller in Rails, and when I supply the same input, and have it print out the output #{output} into my view, it shows as dogcat instead of ["dog", "cat"]. I am really confused how that can happen. Any ideas?
I'm printing it using #notice = "#{output}" in the controller, and in my view I have <%= #notice %>

Answer 1

Rather than splitting your string in the controller and sending it as an array to your view, send the entire string to your view:
input = "dog cat"
#notice = input
Then, in your view, split your the string and display it as a stringified-array:
<%= array(#notice.strip.split(/\s+/)).to_s %>

Answer 2

If you print an array of strings, you'll get the strings all concatenated together. You'd get the same thing in irb if you had entered, print "#{output}". You need to decide how you want to format them and print them that way, perhaps with a simple helper function. For example, the helper could do:
output.each { |s| puts "<p>#{s}</p>" }
Or whatever you like.

Answer 3

Continuing with your example code:
>> input = "dog cat"
=> "dog cat"
>> output = input.strip.split /\s+/
=> ["dog", "cat"]
>> joined = output.join ' '
=> "dog cat"
Remember too that Ruby has several helpers like %w and %W for letting you convert a string into an array of words. If you're starting with an array of words, each of which may have whitespace before and after its individual item, you might try something like this:
>> # `input` is an array of words that was populated Somewhere Else
>> # `input` has the initial value [" dog ", "cat\n", "\r tribble\t"]
>> output = input.join.split /\s+/
=> ["dog", "cat", "tribble"]
>> joined = output.join ' '
=> "dog cat tribble"
Calling String#join without any parameter will join stringish array items together with no separation between them, and is what seems to be done in your example where you just render the array as a string
>> #notice = output
>> # #notice will render as 'dogcat'
As opposed to:
>> #notice = input.join.split(/\s+/).join ' '
>> # #notice will render as 'dog cat'
And there you go.