# More Regexp and file load problems

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/more-regexp-and-file-load-problems/107987>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 28, 2007, 4:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/more-regexp-and-file-load-problems/107987 "2007-06-28T04:45:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Don\_L](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Don\_L](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Don_L)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 4:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/more-regexp-and-file-load-problems/107987/1 "2007-06-28T04:45:23Z")

</div>

Hi All,

I am struggling here and would be most appreciative of any help.

I have a regular expression problem I can’t seem to figure my way out  
of. I had sent a similar request this morning, and gratefully  
received two emails from David Black and Axel E… Unfortunately,  
I am still having difficulty.

I am trying to extract the font name attribute out of the following  
xml (this is an excerpt of a larger file). The weird thing, is that  
my regular expression correctly matches the text if I use TextMate’s  
regular expression ‘find in project feature’ and with the freeware  
Reggy regular expression test tool found on Google code. It also  
matches correctly, if I text against a subset of the xml being  
parsed. I.E., see this first example.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# 

# Created by Don L. on 2007-06-26.

# Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.

string = %q(  
  
  
  
Helvetica  
9  
256  
#000000  
")

regexp = Regexp.new(/^\s\*\<Font-family codeSet="\w\*" fontId="\d\*"\>  
(\w\*)\</Font-family\>\s\*$/)

if string =~ regexp  
puts “#{$1}”

end

Result: Helvetica

However, if I run this script, there is no result.

#!/usr/bin/env ruby

# 

# Created by Don L. on 2007-06-26.

# Copyright © 2007. All rights reserved.

regexp = Regexp.new(/^\s\*\<Font-family codeSet="\w\*" fontId="\d\*"\>  
(\w\*)\</Font-family\>\s\*$/)  
file = File.new(’/Users/donlevan/Desktop/DDRs/Apple Dealer Price  
List.xml’)

file.each do |line|  
if line =~ regexp  
puts “#{$1}”

end  
end

I have looked at Hiproct and XML simple, unfortunately I can not get  
TextMate configured correctly so I keep getting Loaderrors when I try  
to use ruby gems.

Thanks,

Don

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Don\_L](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Don\_L](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Don_L)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 7:12am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/more-regexp-and-file-load-problems/107987/2 "2007-06-28T07:12:31Z")

</div>

From: Don L. [[mailto:removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid)] :

# file = File.new('/Users/donlevan/Desktop/DDRs/Apple Dealer Price

# List.xml’)

# 

# file.each do |line|

# if line =~ regexp

since your regex passes the string test, i would suspect the contents of  
the file itself. possibly the expression is broken into multiple lines…

# puts “#{$1}”

# end

# end

try grepping the file first

root@pc4all:~# grep -i Helvetica test.txt  
Helvetica

then pass the result to simplified ruby program

root@pc4all:~# cat test.rb  
regexp = Regexp.new(/^\s\*\<Font-family codeSet="\w\*"  
fontId="\d\*"\>(\w\*)\</Font-family\>\s\*$/)  
ARGF.each do |line|  
if line =~ regexp  
puts “#{$1}”

end  
end

root@pc4all:~# grep -i Helvetica test.txt | ruby test.rb  
Helvetica

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Don\_L](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/13edae/32.png) [@Don\_L](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Don_L)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2007, 7:24am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/more-regexp-and-file-load-problems/107987/3 "2007-06-28T07:24:32Z")

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On Jun 27, 9:44 pm, Don L. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> xml (this is an excerpt of a larger file). The weird thing, is that
> 
> However, if I run this script, there is no result.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Don

You use an xml library, possibly rexml  
don’t forget require ‘rubygems’