def position(arr, item)
  arr.each_index {|i| return i if arr[i] =~ /#{item}/}
end

a_a = "widget_1;widget_3;widget_2;|widget_5|".split("|")
a_b = "widget_1;widget_3;widget_2;||widget_5".split("|")

puts position(a_a, "widget_5")
puts position(a_b, "widget_5")

puts position(a_a, "widget_1")
puts position(a_b, "widget_1")