remove/replace octal escapes from html

Question

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?

Answer 1

blunt solution :

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

see String#encode for a more subtle approach