# (NEWBIE) Reading folders from a directory into an array

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-reading-folders-from-a-directory-into-an-array/71668>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [October 10, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-reading-folders-from-a-directory-into-an-array/71668 "2006-10-10T17:41:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbr)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 5:41pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-reading-folders-from-a-directory-into-an-array/71668/1 "2006-10-10T17:41:46Z")

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I am a newbie looking to use Ruby to create a maintenance script for my  
MySQL database server. There are several things I would need to do.  
First and foremost, I would like to read in the folder names from the  
MySQL data directory to an array then use this array to perform  
specified maintenance and backup procedures on the databases.  
Currently, I read from a flat text file that needs to be updated every  
time a db is added or removed from the server. I would like to  
eliminate this tedious task.

Sorry for the simplistic question. This is my first foray into a  
scripting language. The limit of my knowledge comes from a couple of  
online tutorials.

Thank you in advance!

rbr

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbr)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 6:11pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-reading-folders-from-a-directory-into-an-array/71668/2 "2006-10-10T18:11:53Z")

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Dir[‘/path/\*’].select { |f| File.directory? f }.each do |directory|

# do your thing

end

Read more at [http://www.rubycentral.com/book/ref\_c\_dir.html](http://www.rubycentral.com/book/ref_c_dir.html)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbr)\
**Post date:** [October 11, 2006, 1:45am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-reading-folders-from-a-directory-into-an-array/71668/3 "2006-10-11T01:45:23Z")

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eden li wrote:

> Dir[’/path/\*’].select { |f| File.directory? f }.each do |directory|
> 
> # do your thing
> 
> end

Dir[] is an alias for Dir.glob, just so you know. Possibly you can do  
without the File.directory? clause by appending an additiona slash:

Dir.glob(’/path/\*/’).each do |directory|  
# …  
end

T.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rbr](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rbr)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/newbie-reading-folders-from-a-directory-into-an-array/71668/4 "2006-10-10T19:02:17Z")

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Thank you! That is great!

rbr