# Errors, trying to edit and write some text files **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 15, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567 "2007-09-15T16:07:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/1 "2007-09-15T16:07:28Z")
Hi, I’m a total ruby noob but i’ve obtained this script from another forum over at Tracks. I’m trying to extract some info from a plain text feed of my upcoming calendar events and write specific info to three different text files (today, tomorrow, and next 7 days). I’m on a Mac. The script is here: I’ve already made edits specific to my computer (the address of my text feed for example): #!/usr/bin/ruby # Generate 3 seperate text files from Tracks TXT feeds # listing actions due today (or overdue), tomorrow or # in the next 7 days. # You can then pull these text files into GeekTool and colour # them separately. # ======== Constants to set with your values =============== # # URL for the base feed: [http://yourdomain.tld/feed/text/[token]](http://yourdomain.tld/feed/text/%5Btoken%5D) URL = “[http://0.0.0.0:3000/feed/text/Nathan/b0b2a7c81680d1a1920b199ecb6db0ad86e2e984](http://0.0.0.0:3000/feed/text/Nathan/b0b2a7c81680d1a1920b199ecb6db0ad86e2e984)” # Path to temporary directory TEMP\_DIR = “/Users/” # # ============================================= # Grab each feed, split into lines, then get rid of any non-action lines today = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=0`.split(“\n”).select{|line| line =~ /\s+[Due:/ or line =~ /^\w/} tomorrow = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=1`.split(“\n”).select{|line| line =~ /\s+[Due:/ or line =~ /^\w/} this\_week = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=6`.split(“\n”).select{|line| line =~ /\s+[Due:/ or line =~ /^\w/} # Get rid of repeated actions in tomorrow and this\_week tomorrow = tomorrow - today today\_or\_tomorrow = today + tomorrow this\_week = this\_week - today\_or\_tomorrow # Print the info to three files, stored in TEMP\_DIR file = File.new(“#{TEMP\_DIR}/today.txt”, “w”)   file.print “\nToday:\n" + today.join(”\n") file.close file = File.new(“#{TEMP\_DIR}/tomorrow.txt”, “w”)   file.print “\nTomorrow:\n" + tomorrow.join(”\n") file.close file = File.new(“#{TEMP\_DIR}/later.txt”, “w”)   file.print “\nLater:\n" + this\_week.join(”\n") file.close When I run this from BBEdit I get about 50 lines of this: untitled text:11: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:11: Invalid char `\240’ in expression untitled text:11: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:11: Invalid char `\240’ in expression untitled text:13: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:13: Invalid char `\240’ in expression untitled text:13: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:13: Invalid char `\240’ in expression untitled text:17: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:17: Invalid char `\240’ in expression untitled text:17: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:17: Invalid char `\240’ in expression Any ideas? Sorry if this appears obvious. Many thanks. ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/2 "2007-09-17T13:23:34Z")
Nathan Thickett-menghini [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > untitled text:17: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:17: Invalid char `\240’ in expression > untitled text:17: Invalid char `\302' in expression untitled text:17: Invalid char `\240’ in expression Even in my newsreader program I had trouble with your message. The problem seems to be that something went wrong when you did the cut and paste from the Tracks forum. Your code is full of invisible characters between the normal characters. BBEdit should in fact be able to help you track this down and fix the problem. Feel free to email me the BBEdit file privately and I’ll remove the gremlins for you if you don’t know how to do it. m. ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 3:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/3 "2007-09-17T15:54:04Z")
Many thanks, I had some success by typing out the script myself and this eliminated the troublesome characters. The script now runs and produces my three text files. I still can’t get it to work as desired - it seems to omit the lines of the calendar that I most need, i.e. the events themselves! I don’t understand enough about the script to be able to fix it but I think the error comes where the script splits the text feeds into separate lines - it only seems to include the first line of the feed and never more. If you fancy taking a look then by all means do but I appreciate you fixing my first problem. For example, the feed for ‘today’ is as follows in its entirety (in the web browser, before ruby has touched it): CAR: [17/09/2007] Car to Garage at 8.30am But the ruby script returns only: Today: CAR: Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 10:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/4 "2007-09-17T22:56:56Z")
Nathan Thickett-menghini [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > For example, the feed for ‘today’ is as follows in its entirety (in the > Today: > CAR: > > Any ideas? > > Attachments: > [http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/299/coloured\_actions.rb](http://www.ruby-forum.com/attachment/299/coloured_actions.rb) Well, the script is doing exactly what you’re telling it to do. This expression: select{|line|line =~ /\s+[Due:/ or line =~ /^\w/} …means: Keep only those lines that begin with the word “[Due:” (possibly after some whitespace), or that begin with a word character (e.g. “a” or “b” or “c”…). Well, the first line does begin with a word character (“C” for “CAR:”), so it’s kept. But the second line does not - it begins with whitespace, and the whitespace is not followed by the word “[Due:”, so it’s thrown away. So it seems as if the script you’ve adopted is inappropriate to the format of the actual data you wish to parse. m. ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2007, 11:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/5 "2007-09-17T23:03:43Z")
That’s brilliant thanks! So it seems to me that the Tracks Developers have changed the format of the feeds since the script was written, omitting the word ‘Due:’. How can I get it to include all lines that begin with white space? Many thanks, you’ve been fantastic! ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 6:36pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/6 "2007-09-18T18:36:48Z")
Many thanks - you’re helping me hugely. I’ve gone through the script and made the changes you suggested and it has worked in the most part. The part of the script that parses the lines is now as follows: today = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=0`.split("\n").select{|line| line =~ /\s+/} tomorrow = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=1`.split("\n").select{|line| line =~ /\s+/} this\_week = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=6`.split("\n").select{|line| line =~ /\s+/} later = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=365`.split("\n").select{|line| line =~ /\s+/} I’m sure this is not perfect but it seems to do the trick of including the lines that begin with blank space. Let me show you the feed as you requested. HOME: [18/09/2007] Parcelforce coming after 1pm [19/09/2007] be a bender [21/09/2007] Sort important documents etc WORK: [24/09/2007] Learn NATS Stuff CAR: [30/09/2007] nob So you see there are lines that begin with letters (these are the contexts, Home, Work, etc) lines with a small gap followed by events, and lines that are entirely blank. You’ll have noticed that part of the script deletes duplicate lines - so that you don’t get an event that is on today’s feed repeated on the weekly feed. This works mostly but it also deletes repeated CONTEXTS, i.e. the context ‘HOME:’ will appear on today’s feed but not on any others. I’ve tried to get round this by totally abandoning all contexts, i.e. changing the part that parses the lines to NOT INCLUDE lines that begin with word characters. This works, but it now still includes the totally empty lines, which puts gaps in my text files. Could you add a tiny part to the following line to show me how to NOT include empty lines? Is this possible? I know it seems like a lot of effort for a small problem, but I’d really appreciate it, it will make me more productive to see my events neatly on my desktop. today = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=0`.split("\n").select{|line| line =~ /\s+/} ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2007, 4:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/7 "2007-09-18T04:33:43Z")
Nathan Thickett-menghini [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > That’s brilliant thanks! So it seems to me that the Tracks Developers > have changed the format of the feeds since the script was written, > omitting the word ‘Due:’. How can I get it to include all lines that > begin with white space? It’s hard to say, because I don’t know the format of the feeds. You could change the script you have, just deleting the six character phrase “[Due:” wherever you see it. But that is just a guess, not knowing what the feeds look like. It would be better if you’d show us a multi-line feed output so we can see what the desirable and undesirable lines look like. In the example you gave, _all_ lines were desirable, which made some of the program wasteful. But perhaps in a fuller example, there are some undesirable lines. The change I’m suggesting might not eliminate them; it depends what they look like. m. ---
**Author:** ![shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@shadowcipher](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/shadowcipher)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2007, 7:50pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/errors-trying-to-edit-and-write-some-text-files/114567/8 "2007-09-19T19:50:45Z")
Nathan Thickett-menghini [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > begin with word characters. This works, but it now still includes the > totally empty lines, which puts gaps in my text files. Could you add a In my view the entire original script is misconceived. You can’t just look at individual lines. You need to cycle thru the lines in order, gathering info as categorized. Something, perhaps, like this: cats = {} today = `curl -s "#{URL}"?due=0` today.split(“\n”).inject do |memo, line| line.lstrip! if line =~ /^\w\*😕 cats[line] = [] line else cats[memo] |= line.to\_a memo end end Now “cats” holds a nice hash where the keys are the categories and each category’s value is an array of its events. Do that again for “tomorrow” and the others, using the same “cats”; no duplicate values will be inserted, because of the use of the |= operator. When you’re all finished, output “cats” in whatever format you like, such as: cats.each do |cat, events| puts cat events.each do |event| puts " " + event end end If you wanted to get really neat, you could sort stuff before outputting. m.