# File renaming/parsing help **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 2, 2007, 9:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-renaming-parsing-help/121876 "2007-12-02T09:45:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mike-moscow)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2007, 9:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-renaming-parsing-help/121876/1 "2007-12-02T09:45:00Z")
First of all let me say that I am an absolute newb when it comes to rails. I am simply trying to work on an existing script that was written by someone else. I need to take a filename that will always have a similar name and turn it into an rfc2822 compliant line for an xml file. Here is what I have so far but I am absolutely lost as you can see. sad The filenames will always be the same, e.g. November 15,2007.mp3 or September 7,2008.mp3, etc. One thing I am concerned about is the day since sometimes it will be a single digit and sometimes a double digit, although I am sure their is a way around that too. I would love if someone could shed some light on this for me. I might even learn something in the process. smile #The goal is turn “November 15,2007.mp3” into “Wed, 15 Nov 2007 19:00:00 GMT” # #So far the output below gives me Wed, Nov15 filename = “November 15, 2007.mp3” puts "Wed, " + ( filename[0,3]) + ( filename[-12,2]) ---
**Author:** ![mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mike-moscow)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2007, 11:55am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-renaming-parsing-help/121876/2 "2007-12-02T11:55:39Z")
On Dec 2, 2007 2:44 AM, Mike Mr. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > since sometimes it will be a single digit and sometimes a double digit, > > filename = “November 15, 2007.mp3” > puts "Wed, " + ( filename[0,3]) + ( filename[-12,2]) You could make your life easy by using a Date object and the #parse method… str = “November 15, 2007.mp3” date\_str = str.split(‘.’)[0] d = Date.parse(date\_str) ##### parse it puts d.strftime “%a, %e %b %Y.mp3” ##### output it the way you want You can add other formats too (see #strftime and look at the source) Todd ---
**Author:** ![mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mike-moscow)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2007, 12:14pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-renaming-parsing-help/121876/3 "2007-12-02T12:14:25Z")
-------- Original-Nachricht -------- > Datum: Sun, 2 Dec 2007 17:44:56 +0900 > Von: “Mike Mr.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > An: removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid > Betreff: file renaming/parsing help > since sometimes it will be a single digit and sometimes a double digit, > > ## filename = “November 15, 2007.mp3” puts "Wed, " + ( filename[0,3]) + ( filename[-12,2]) > > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). Dear Mike, here’s some code using regexps … that avoids knowing the exact indices where your one-digit or two-digit day information is. To get the day of week, you can use the time class of Ruby. ([class Time - RDoc Documentation](http://ruby-doc.org/core/classes/Time.html#M000261)) Best regards, Axel * * * require “time” mp\_files=[“November 15, 2007.mp3”] result=[] month=[“January”,“February”,“March”,“April”,“May”,“June”,“July”,“August”,“September”,“October”,“November”,“December”] year=/(1|2)[0-9]{3}/ # year must start in 1 or in 2 and have 4 digits day=/[0-9]{1,2}/ file\_month=‘’ file\_year=‘’ file\_day=‘’ mp\_files.each{|file\_name| file\_name.sub!(/.[^.]\*$/,‘’) # chop off endings month.each{|m| if file\_name.index(m)!=nil; file\_month=m; break; end} if file\_month==‘’ raise "No month given for file : " + file\_name end ref\_year=year.match(file\_name) if ref\_year!=nil file\_year=ref\_year[0] else raise "No year given for file : " + file\_name end file\_name.sub!(ref\_year[0],‘’) # remove year, so that doesn’t interfere with search for file\_name’s day ref\_day=day.match(file\_name) if ref\_day!=nil file\_day=ref\_day[0] else raise "No day given for file : " + file\_name end # get day of week dow=Time.parse([file\_month,file\_day,file\_year].join(’ ‘)).wday result\<\ **Author:** ![mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mike-moscow)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 12:20am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-renaming-parsing-help/121876/4 "2007-12-03T00:20:35Z") Hi, On Dec 2, 7:44 pm, “Mike Mr.” [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > ## since sometimes it will be a single digit and sometimes a double digit, filename = “November 15, 2007.mp3” puts "Wed, " + ( filename[0,3]) + ( filename[-12,2]) > > Posted viahttp://www.ruby-forum.com/. not exactly what you’re after (not sure how you intend to generate times?) but might help. require ‘date’ require ‘time’ str = “November 15, 2007.mp3” #str\_sans\_ext = str.split(‘.’)[0] # or, str\_sans\_ext = str.gsub(/.mp3/,‘’) new\_date = Time.parse(str\_sans\_ext) puts new\_date puts new\_date.httpdate cheers, ---
**Author:** ![mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/53a042/32.png) [@mike-moscow](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/mike-moscow)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2007, 10:03pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/file-renaming-parsing-help/121876/5 "2007-12-03T22:03:04Z")
Todd B. wrote: > On Dec 2, 2007 2:44 AM, Mike Mr. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > > > since sometimes it will be a single digit and sometimes a double digit, > > > > filename = “November 15, 2007.mp3” > > puts "Wed, " + ( filename[0,3]) + ( filename[-12,2]) > > You could make your life easy by using a Date object and the #parse > method… > > str = “November 15, 2007.mp3” > date\_str = str.split(‘.’)[0] > d = Date.parse(date\_str) ##### parse it > puts d.strftime “%a, %e %b %Y.mp3” ##### output it the way you want > > You can add other formats too (see #strftime and look at the source) > Todd Thank you so much Todd. I integrated your code successfully and it works great. Kudos to all of you who lent me a hand. Warm regards, Mike