How to replace a word with another in a Ruby variable?

Question

ruby

Some variable = race comes to me.
In which there can be a number of values, example ("Black", "AI / AN**", "NH/PI**", White, Asians)

How can I make my variable automatically change the value according to this algorithm, if in it
Black should become African American,
White - white,
AI / AN ** - American Indian or Alaskan Native
NH / PI - Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
I tried through gsub - but it does not change the variable itself
How can this be implemented by ruby or regular expressions?

Answer 1

words = ["Black", "AI/AN**", "NH/PI**", "White", "Asians"]

words.each do |word|
  case word
  when "Black"
    word.gsub!("Black", "African American")
  when "AI/AN**"
    word.gsub!("AI/AN**", "American Indian or Alaskan Native")
  when "NH/PI**"
    word.gsub!("NH/P**", "ative Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander")
  end
end