# How to use an array to load html data with ruby

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-use-an-array-to-load-html-data-with-ruby/186386>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [April 6, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-use-an-array-to-load-html-data-with-ruby/186386 "2010-04-06T05:33:56Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![luofeiyu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@luofeiyu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luofeiyu)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 5:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-use-an-array-to-load-html-data-with-ruby/186386/1 "2010-04-06T05:33:56Z")

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there is a html file:

| report\_data | **liu\_asset** | **cash** | **finance\_asset** | **note** |
| 2009-12-31 | 0 | 1,693,048,000,000 | 20,147,000,000 | 500 |
| 2009-09-30 | 0 | 1,777,512,000,000 | 24,977,000,000 | 700 |

how can i use an array to load data with ruby,here is what i want :  
array[0,0]=report\_data  
array[0,1]=liu\_asset  
array[0,2]=cash  
array[0,3]=finance\_asset  
array[0,4]=note  
array[1,0]=2009-12-31  
array[1,1]=0  
array[1,2]=1,693,048,000,000  
array[1,3]=20,147,000,000  
array[1,4]=500  
array[2,0]=2009-09-30  
array[2,1]=0  
array[2,2]=1,777,512,000,000  
array[2,3]=24,977,000,000  
array[2,4]=700

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![luofeiyu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@luofeiyu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luofeiyu)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 6:07am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-use-an-array-to-load-html-data-with-ruby/186386/2 "2010-04-06T06:07:00Z")

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On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 10:33 PM, Pen T. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> 2009-12-31 24,977,000,000 array[1,0]=2009-12-31 Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

You’re missing a after the first row.

I added it in for you, and gave an example of how you can use Hpricot to  
load the data. Here is basically everything I know about Hpricot: you  
can  
get the text inside an Hpricot element by passing it #innerHTML, if it  
is an  
element, you can get a list of elements with a specific tag by using  
division, for example how I got all the td’s from the row. You can get  
the  
first instance of a specific tag by using %, for example how I pull out  
the  
strong.  
That is all I know about Hpricot, but it’s all a problem like this  
requires.

require ‘rubygems’  
require ‘hpricot’

rows = Array.new  
for row in Hpricot(DATA) % ‘table’ / ‘tr’  
rows.push Array.new  
for data in row / ‘td’  
rows.last.push ( data % ‘strong’ || data ).innerHTML  
end  
end

require ‘pp’  
pp rows

**END**

| report\_data | **liu\_asset** | **cash** | **finance\_asset** | **note** |
| 2009-12-31 | 0 | 1,693,048,000,000 | 20,147,000,000 | 500 |
| 2009-09-30 | 0 | 1,777,512,000,000 | 24,977,000,000 | 700 |

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![luofeiyu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@luofeiyu](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/luofeiyu)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2010, 7:46am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/how-to-use-an-array-to-load-html-data-with-ruby/186386/3 "2010-04-06T07:46:30Z")

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Here’s a similar way to do what Josh does, only using Nokogiri:

#!/usr/bin/ruby

require ‘rubygems’  
require ‘nokogiri’

HTML =\<\<EOT

| report\_data | **liu\_asset** | **cash** | **finance\_asset** | **note** |
| 2009-12-31 | 0 | 1,693,048,000,000 | 20,147,000,000 | 500 |
| 2009-09-30 | 0 | 1,777,512,000,000 | 24,977,000,000 | 700 |

EOT

doc = Nokogiri::HTML.parse(HTML)

array = []  
doc.css(‘tr’).each\_with\_index do |tr, tr\_i|  
array[tr\_i] = tr.css(‘td’).map{ |td| td.text }  
end

array[0][0] # =\> “report\_data”  
array[0][1] # =\> “liu\_asset”  
array[0][2] # =\> " cash"  
array[0][3] # =\> “finance\_asset”  
array[0][4] # =\> " note"  
array[1][0] # =\> “2009-12-31”  
array[1][1] # =\> "0 "  
array[1][2] # =\> “1,693,048,000,000”  
array[1][3] # =\> “20,147,000,000”  
array[1][4] # =\> “500”  
array[2][0] # =\> “2009-09-30”  
array[2][1] # =\> "0 "  
array[2][2] # =\> “1,777,512,000,000”  
array[2][3] # =\> “24,977,000,000”  
array[2][4] # =\> “700”