How can I convert an IO object to a string in Ruby?

io, ruby

Solution

I solved this by directing my output to a StringIO object instead of STDOUT:

> output = StringIO.new
#<StringIO:0x007fcb28629030>
> output.puts('hi')
nil
> output.string
"hi\n"

Problem

I'm working with an IO object (some `STDOUT` output text), and I'm trying to convert it to a string so that I can do some text processing. I would like to do something like this: ``` my_io_object = $stdout #=> #<IO:<STDOUT>> my_io_object.puts('hi') #note: I know how to make 'hi' into a string, but this is a simplified example #=>hi my_io_object.to_s ``` I have tried a few things and gotten a few errors: ``` my_io_object.read #=> IOError: not opened for reading my_io_object.open #=> NoMethodError: private method `open' called for #<IO:<STDOUT>> IO.read(my_io_object) #=> TypeError: can't convert IO into String ``` I've read through the IO class methods, and I can't figure out how to manipulate the data in that object. Any suggestions?

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