# Area Codes **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [February 5, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/area-codes/182976 "2010-02-05T15:32:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![woodyee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/43a26b/32.png) [@woodyee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/woodyee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 3:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/area-codes/182976/1 "2010-02-05T15:32:59Z")
Hi! TOTAL noob question here but that’s what I am. I’m trying to create a program where I type the area code, hit enter, and see it’s state. I have a list of codes per state and it’s rather large. How’s the best way to do this? I don’t want to use a database (MySQL) for this if that’s possible. I’ve tried using if statements and hashes but didn’t know if there’s a better way. I’ve searched for a gem that’s already written but didn’t have any luck and I’ve googled to see if there’s source code for this already but couldn’t find anything. Any ideas? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![woodyee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/43a26b/32.png) [@woodyee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/woodyee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 8:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/area-codes/182976/2 "2010-02-05T20:50:48Z")
Wood Y. wrote: > Hi! TOTAL noob question here but that’s what I am. I’m trying to create > a program where I type the area code, hit enter, and see it’s state. I > have a list of codes per state and it’s rather large. How’s the best way > to do this? I don’t want to use a database (MySQL) for this if that’s > possible. I’ve tried using if statements and hashes but didn’t know if > there’s a better way. I’ve searched for a gem that’s already written but > didn’t have any luck and I’ve googled to see if there’s source code for > this already but couldn’t find anything. Any ideas? Thanks! Use a database (if this is a desktop application, SQLite would work well; if you’re using JRuby, try H2). It’s the best way. If you use one of the many excellent ORM libraries (ActiveRecord, Sequel, DataMapper…), this is quite easy. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![woodyee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/w/43a26b/32.png) [@woodyee](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/woodyee)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2010, 9:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/area-codes/182976/3 "2010-02-05T21:55:03Z")
On Feb 5, 2010, at 9:33 AM, Wood Y. wrote: > Hi! TOTAL noob question here but that’s what I am. I’m trying to create > a program where I type the area code, hit enter, and see it’s state. I > have a list of codes per state and it’s rather large. How’s the best way > to do this? I don’t want to use a database (MySQL) for this if that’s > possible. I’ve tried using if statements and hashes but didn’t know if > there’s a better way. I’ve searched for a gem that’s already written but > didn’t have any luck and I’ve googled to see if there’s source code for > this already but couldn’t find anything. Any ideas? Thanks! There are lots of ways to do this. Maybe this script will give you some ideas. This uses Ruby’s ability to embed data at the end of the script but you could also store the data in an external file. $ cat areacode.rb BEGIN { @info = {} DATA.each\_line do |x| code, state = x.split @info[code] = state end @state = Hash.new { |h,k| @info[k.to\_s] } } [203,914,213].each { |c| puts “area code #{c} is in #{@state[c]}” } # Put your area code data below **END** 203 CT 860 CT 914 NY 213 CA $ ruby areacode.rb area code 203 is in CT area code 914 is in NY area code 213 is in CA