match

Converts pattern to a Regexp (if it isn't already one), then invokes its match method on str. If the second parameter is present, it specifies the position in the string to begin the search.

'hello'.match('(.)\1')      #=> #<MatchData "ll" 1:"l">
'hello'.match('(.)\1')[0]   #=> "ll"
'hello'.match(/(.)\1/)[0]   #=> "ll"
'hello'.match('xx')         #=> nil

If a block is given, invoke the block with MatchData if match succeed, so that you can write

str.match(pat) {|m| ...}

instead of

if m = str.match(pat)
  ...
end

The return value is a value from block execution in this case.