#!/usr/bin/env ruby -w

# Trying to dynamically create a regexp object like so => /\\d|\\w|\+|\w*|\d*/
terms = %w[\\d \\w \+ \w* \d*]
create_regex = terms.join("|")

# double-escaped terms are 'corrected'
puts create_regex # => \d|\w|\+|\w*|\d*
x = Regexp.compile(create_regex)
# double-escaped elements are 'corrected'
puts x # => (?-mix:\d|\w|\+|\w*|\d*)

# try it without double quotes
create_regex = '\\d|\\w|\+|\w*|\d*'
x = Regexp.compile(create_regex)
# double-escaped elements are 'corrected' again
puts x # => (?-mix:\d|\w|\+|\w*|\d*)