\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [July 16, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parse-word-html-docs-for-database-inserts/172164 "2009-07-16T01:23:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1
**Author:**  [@msmith362](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/msmith362)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parse-word-html-docs-for-database-inserts/172164/1 "2009-07-16T01:23:10Z")
I am new to Ruby and have perused the forum but I will ask this question
as I couldn’t seem to answer my questions with other posts.
The documents have no structure except for a unique number that appears
first in the document and the rest of the data I am looking for is
preceeded by key words that can help me identify a country code, the
hour something was started or finished and maybe a subject here and
there. The html docs are just snippets from the news pages of the
Internet pictures and all that I need the title, and dates extracted.
What I need to do is also extract the mimetype, file name and
last\_update\_date of the document. Can I do this with Ruby? I know Ruby
has several gems that can help but which one would be the best for
something like this?
Most of the postings I have read deal with semi-structured data. Data
that is preceeded with a column name perhaps but these files are
completely unstructured.
Also I don’t want to be entering filenames one by one. I have about 6000
documents to parse. Is there a way to handle something like that with a
script?
Any direction would be greatly appreciated. Never have written Ruby code
so I am looking for a good tutorial using parsing or an example app that
may handle something like this.
---
**Author:**  [@msmith362](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/msmith362)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 1:36am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parse-word-html-docs-for-database-inserts/172164/2 "2009-07-16T01:36:01Z")
I’m not able to help with the parsing, but if you want to check all
files in a folder you can use this:
$all\_files = []
Dir.chdir dir do
$all\_files += Dir["\*"]
end
where dir is the directory the files are in. That will get you an
array with all the filenames. Then you can just iterate through them:
---
**Author:**  [@msmith362](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/msmith362)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 5:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parse-word-html-docs-for-database-inserts/172164/3 "2009-07-16T05:37:17Z")
Dylan wrote:
> I’m not able to help with the parsing, but if you want to check all
> files in a folder you can use this:
>
> $all\_files = []
> Dir.chdir dir do
> $all\_files += Dir[“\*”]
> end
Might not Find be more useful overall?
[http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/find/rdoc/classes/Find.html](http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/find/rdoc/classes/Find.html)
–
James B.
[www.jamesbritt.com](http://www.jamesbritt.com) - Playing with Better Toys
[www.ruby-doc.org](http://www.ruby-doc.org) - Ruby Help & Documentation
[www.rubystuff.com](http://www.rubystuff.com) - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff
[www.neurogami.com](http://www.neurogami.com) - Smart application development
---
**Author:**  [@msmith362](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/msmith362)\
**Post date:** [July 16, 2009, 8:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parse-word-html-docs-for-database-inserts/172164/4 "2009-07-16T08:26:30Z")
Margaret Smith wrote:
> I am new to Ruby and have perused the forum but I will ask this question
> as I couldn’t seem to answer my questions with other posts.
Hi Smith,
Its very tough to answer your question. Because I like HPRICOT gem very
much. But I didn’t said That is best. It depends upon your satisfaction.
And also please try with ,
[http://rfeedparser.rubyforge.org/](http://rfeedparser.rubyforge.org/)
Thanks,
P.Raveendran
> **[Raveendran](https://raveendran.wordpress.com)**
>
> Nothing is impossible...
> The documents have no structure except for a unique number that appears
> first in the document and the rest of the data I am looking for is
> preceeded by key words that can help me identify a country code, the
> hour something was started or finished and maybe a subject here and
> there. The html docs are just snippets from the news pages of the
> Internet pictures and all that I need the title, and dates extracted.
>
> What I need to do is also extract the mimetype, file name and
> last\_update\_date of the document. Can I do this with Ruby? I know Ruby
> has several gems that can help but which one would be the best for
> something like this?
>
> Most of the postings I have read deal with semi-structured data. Data
> that is preceeded with a column name perhaps but these files are
> completely unstructured.
>
> Also I don’t want to be entering filenames one by one. I have about 6000
> documents to parse. Is there a way to handle something like that with a
> script?
>
> Any direction would be greatly appreciated. Never have written Ruby code
> so I am looking for a good tutorial using parsing or an example app that
> may handle something like this.