Q:

remove/replace octal escapes from html

I have octal escapes in my html(stored as a string), which displays on the browser as �.
eg:- "Thanks for the update\205.nt"
Is there a way to remove these from the string or make it render properly on the browser?

A:

blunt solution :
"Thanks for the update\205".encode('ascii', :invalid => :replace, :replace => "")
=>"Thanks for the update"

see String#encode for a more subtle approach

