Maybe I don't understand the .to_a method

Ruby
1

Hey folks,

I’m attempting to write a little program that uses the Net::HTTP library
to
fetch a text file. The text file has lines broken up by newlines, and I
thought I could use the .to_a method to convert a variable into an
array,
but when I do it it puts the entire text file into the first marker on
the
array, and the rest are nil.

Here’s the program. I know I’m missing something grotesquely obvious,
and
thanks in advance for beating me with the clue stick.

What I expected was for test to return what it returns, but test2[0] to
return “This” and test2[1] to return “is”. Test2[0] returns identical
results to test.

jf

require ‘net/http’
require ‘uri’

filename = ‘test.txt’

def testget(filename)
url = URI.parse(‘http://vineland.lib.muohio.edu/’ + filename )
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url.path)
res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http| http.request(req) }
end

test = testget(filename)
test2 = test.to_a
puts test
puts test2[0]
puts test2[1]

2

return “This” and test2[1] to return “is”. Test2[0] returns identical
def testget(filename)
url = URI.parse(‘http://vineland.lib.muohio.edu/’ + filename )
req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(url.path)
res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http| http.request(req) }
end

test = testget(filename)
test2 = test.to_a

test2 = test.split(/[\n\r]+/)

puts test
puts test2[0]
puts test2[1]

that would “eat” blank lines though, but gets you closer…

3

On 7/19/06, Philip H. [email protected] wrote:

Here’s the program. I know I’m missing something grotesquely obvious,
require ‘net/http’
test = testget(filename)

Aha, split. I’ve now tried split on arbitrary lines in irb, and it
works on
them. But trying split in my little program here yields the following
error:

testget.rb:13: private method `split’ called for #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK
readbody=true> (NoMethodError)

Googling this hairy error gives me no leads.

jf

4

On 7/19/06, Tanner B. [email protected] wrote:

url = URI.parse(‘http://vineland.lib.muohio.edu/’ + filename )
puts test
on

Try doing test2 = test.body.split (given the sample code you listed
above)

That did it!!! Thanks much, Phillip and Tanner.

jf

5

On 7/19/06, John F. [email protected] wrote:

res = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http| http.request(req) }

testget.rb:13: private method `split’ called for #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK
readbody=true> (NoMethodError)

Googling this hairy error gives me no leads.

jf

Try doing test2 = test.body.split (given the sample code you listed
above)

6

On 7/19/06, Adam S. [email protected] wrote:

test = testget(filename).split
Aha, so that’s why the cryptic stuff at the beginning of the output…
thank
you!

jf

7

John F. wrote:

What I expected was for test to return what it returns, but test2[0] to
return “This” and test2[1] to return “is”. Test2[0] returns identical
results to test.

You are not mistaken; String#to_a returns an array of lines. But you
didn’t
invoke to_a on a string, you invoked it on a Net::HTTPOK object, which
just
wraps the object inside an array:

test #=> #<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK readbody=true>
test.to_a #=> [#<Net::HTTPOK 200 OK readbody=true>]
test.body.to_a #=> [“this\n”, “is\n”, “a\n”, “test\n”]

Daniel

8

Http requests return a two-element array with the response and the data.

try :
def testget filename
#…
response,data = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http|
http.request(req) }
data

test = testget(filename).split

-Adam