# Parsing-Newbie question **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [July 19, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036 "2006-07-19T22:47:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ricardo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 10:47pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036/1 "2006-07-19T22:47:24Z")
Hello everybody, Ruby is my first prgramming lenguage. I know it’s a simple question so I hope someone can help me out. I have a file that i need to read, here’s my code so far: class Parser File.open(“Data”) do |file| while line = file.gets end end end somewhere in my file there is a table of strings like this: “Hello” = “hi miguel” “wrong” = “this is not the right anser” “correct asnwer” = “this is the right asnwer” “for what” = “tell me what you need it for” My problem is this: I want o search for this table, and read in such a way so that when I call for a value(example, hello I can get its value, which is ‘hi miguel’). I know it’s a straigt forward process. I’m not sure how to search for the table, and wheather to use a hash or arrays. Can anyone help me out? Thank you so much. Ricardo ---
**Author:** ![ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ricardo)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2006, 11:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036/2 "2006-07-19T23:20:10Z")
On Jul 19, 2006, at 4:47 PM, Ricardo F. wrote: > while line = file.gets > > I know it’s a straigt forward process. I’m not sure how to search for > the table, and wheather to use a hash or arrays. Can anyone help me > out? > > Thank you so much. > > Ricardo I find that each\_line is nicer to work with than .gets for these purposes. It would look like this: File.open(“Data”) do |file| file.each\_line do |line| #here pull the line appart (regular expressions are a good choice, or maybe using the String#split function. Check ‘ri’ for that) #Use the pulled apart piece to create a data structure end end I’ll leave the middle parts to you. Be warned that the “line” variable will still have a new line ("\n") at the end. A mistake which caught me when I was first learning Ruby. Good luck! Mat ---
**Author:** ![ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ricardo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036/3 "2006-07-20T01:33:24Z")
William J. wrote: > Ricardo F. wrote: > > > “Hello” = “hi miguel” > > the table, and wheather to use a hash or arrays. Can anyone help me > > out? > > table = {} > IO.foreach(‘Data’) { |line| > if line =~ /^ \s\* " (._?) " \s_ = \s\* " (.\*?) "/x > table[$1] = $2 > end > } > > puts table[“wrong”] Thanks for the help William, I tried the code you wrote, but I got a nil as a result…I modified the code as follows: table = {} IO.foreach(‘Localizable.strings’){ |line| if line =~ /^ \s\* " (._?) " \s_ = \s\* " (._?) "\s_/ table[$1] = $2 end } am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ricardo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036/4 "2006-07-20T01:49:10Z")
Hi – On Thu, 20 Jul 2006, Ricardo F. wrote: > > ``` > > table[$1] = $2 > > > > ``` > > table = {} > IO.foreach(‘Localizable.strings’){ |line| > if line =~ /^ \s\* " (._?) " \s_ = \s\* " (._?) "\s_/ > table[$1] = $2 > end > } > > am I missing something? The /x modifier on the end of William’s regex means that literal whitespace is ignored. (I’m a big non-fan of /x – I find it hard to read regular expressions with a lot of insignificant whitespace mixed in – but it has a following 🙂 Without it, the regex engine will look for actual spaces around the various quotation marks. David ---
**Author:** ![ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ricardo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 12:17am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036/5 "2006-07-20T00:17:48Z")
Ricardo F. wrote: > “Hello” = “hi miguel” > the table, and wheather to use a hash or arrays. Can anyone help me > out? table = {} IO.foreach(‘Data’) { |line| if line =~ /^ \s\* " (._?) " \s_ = \s\* " (.\*?) "/x table[$1] = $2 end } puts table[“wrong”] ---
**Author:** ![ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/a6a055/32.png) [@ricardo](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/ricardo)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2006, 9:42am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-newbie-question/99036/6 "2006-07-20T09:42:59Z")
Ricardo F. wrote: > > ``` > > table[$1] = $2 > > > > ``` > > table = {} > IO.foreach(‘Localizable.strings’){ |line| > if line =~ /^ \s\* " (._?) " \s_ = \s\* " (._?) "\s_/ Removing the x is like removing the lead from your mechanical pencil. > ``` > table[$1] = $2 > > ``` > > end > } > > am I missing something? > > – > Posted via [http://www.ruby-forum.com/](http://www.ruby-forum.com/). table = {} # Assumes that the filename is “Data”. IO.foreach(‘Data’) { |line| if line =~ # Regular expressions contain extremely condensed code. # Therefore, anyone who has good sense knows that it is # usually a good idea to use the x modifier which allows one # to include whitespace and comments. A quote from # Perl’s creator: # Since /x extended syntax is now the default, # is # now always a metacharacter indicating a comment, # and whitespace is now always “meta”. / ^ # Start of the string. \s\* # Optional whitespace (spaces or tabs). " # A double quote. (._?) # Capture the key in $1. The ? makes it non-greedy. " \s_ # Double quote followed by optional whitespace. = \s\* # Equal sign followed by optional whitespace. " (.\*?) # Capture value in $2. " /x # x for extended regular expression. ``` table[$1] = $2 ``` end } puts table[“wrong”] p table