I have simplified the examples. Say I have a string containing the code for a regex. I would like the regex to match a literal dot and thus I want it to be:

```
\.

```

So I create the following Ruby string:

```
"\\."

```

However when I use it with Regexp.union to create my regex, I get this:

```
irb(main):017:0> Regexp.union("\\.")
=> /\\\./

```

That will match a slash followed by a dot, not just a single dot. Compare the previous result to this:

```
irb(main):018:0> Regexp.new("\\.")
=> /\./

```

which gives the Regexp I want but without the needed union.

Could you explain why Ruby acts like that and how to make the correct union of regexes ? The context of utilization is that of importing JSON strings describing regexes and union-ing them in Ruby.