The ANSI::String class is a very sophisticated implementation of Ruby's standard String class, but one that can handle ANSI codes seamlessly.
require 'ansi/string'
flower1 = ANSI::String.new("Roses")
flower2 = ANSI::String.new("Violets")
Like any other string.
flower1.to_s.assert == "Roses"
flower2.to_s.assert == "Violets"
Bet now we can add color.
flower1.red!
flower2.blue!
flower1.to_s.assert == "\e[31mRoses\e[0m"
flower2.to_s.assert == "\e[34mViolets\e[0m"
Despite that the string representation now contains ANSI codes, we can still manipulate the string in much the same way that we manipulate an ordinary string.
flower1.size.assert == 5
flower2.size.assert == 7
Like ordinary strings we can concatenate the two strings
flowers = flower1 + ' ' + flower2
flowers.to_s.assert == "\e[31mRoses\e[0m \e[34mViolets\e[0m"
flowers.size.assert == 13
Standard case conversion such as #upcase and #downcase work.
flower1.upcase.to_s.assert == "\e[31mROSES\e[0m"
flower1.downcase.to_s.assert == "\e[31mroses\e[0m"
Some of the most difficult methods to re-implement were the substitution methods such as #sub and #gsub. They are still somewhat more limited than the original string methods, but their primary functionality should work.
flower1.gsub('s', 'z').to_s.assert == "\e[31mRozez\e[0m"
There are still a number of methods that need implementation. ANSI::String is currently a very partial implementation. But as you can see from the methods it does currently support, is it already useful.