# Parsing with delimeters ---new programmer **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [August 2, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021 "2006-08-02T22:19:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **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:** [August 2, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/1 "2006-08-02T22:19:36Z")
I’m trying to parse a file that looks like this: text… text… numbers… blalba bla and then somewhere in the file i have a table like this: IDS\_SOMETHIGN\_SOMETHING “giving you cookies in a sec” IDX\_SOMETHING\_SOMETHIGN “hi again” IDY\_SMOTHIENG\_SOMETHIGN\_SOMTHIGN “HELO world” ID\_ONE\_THING “hello how are you” ID\_ONETHINGTOO “give me a number” ID\_ONEMORE\_THING\_ANDMORE “this are strings” I’m trying to create a hash table but i’m not sure what’s wrong with my delimeters: class Parser table = {} File.foreach filename do |line| next unless line =~ /^ID(\S+) “(.\*?)”/ table[$1] = $2 end end this doesn’t store anything in the table…any help? thanks ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 1:16pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/2 "2006-08-03T13:16:48Z")
Robert wrote: > wrong with my > end > Your regular expression does not accommodate more than one space between > the key and the value, which all your lines have. Also, if there are > leading spaces, you need to accommodate them. - Mark. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 1:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/3 "2006-08-03T13:17:10Z")
Is your Regexp in multiline mode? (Sorry, I can’t remember if it’s the default or not…) M.T. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 1:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/4 "2006-08-03T13:19:10Z")
> next unless line =~ /^ID(\S+) “(.\*?)”/ You might be wanting to match more than one whitespace in between the hash’s key and value? /^ID(\S+)\s+"(.\*?)"/ -rak- ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/5 "2006-08-03T14:23:26Z")
Robert S. wrote: > IDX\_SOMETHING\_SOMETHIGN “hi again” > IDY\_SMOTHIENG\_SOMETHIGN\_SOMTHIGN “HELO world” > ID\_ONE\_THING “hello how are you” > ID\_ONETHINGTOO “give me a number” > ID\_ONEMORE\_THING\_ANDMORE “this are strings” > > I’m trying to create a hash table but i’m not sure what’s wrong with my > delimeters: Ricardo, on Aug. 1 you posted this: > ID\_ONETHINGTOO “give me a number” > ID\_ONEMORE\_THING\_ANDMORE “this are strings” Why did you ignore the answers that you were given at that time? You should not have started a new thread. ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/6 "2006-08-03T14:23:37Z")
Harry wrote: > > Why did you ignore the answers that you were given at that time? > > You should not have started a new thread. > > I wondered the same thing. But the answers don’t seem to be showing up > at ruby-forum. Maybe he is not seeing them. > > Harry Yes, I’ve sent an email to Andreas about it (the emails not showing up on the forum). -Justin ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 2:23pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/7 "2006-08-03T14:23:36Z")
> Why did you ignore the answers that you were given at that time? > You should not have started a new thread. I wondered the same thing. But the answers don’t seem to be showing up at ruby-forum. Maybe he is not seeing them. Harry ---
**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:** [August 3, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/parsing-with-delimeters-new-programmer/101021/8 "2006-08-03T13:21:16Z")
Robert S. wrote: > IDX\_SOMETHING\_SOMETHIGN “hi again” > > File.foreach filename do |line| > next unless line =~ /^ID(\S+) “(.\*?)”/ > table[$1] = $2 > end > > end > > this doesn’t store anything in the table…any help? > thanks Hi Robert, Isn’t this the third time you’ve posted the same question? The problem I see is that you now are expecting ID followed by one or more non-whitespace characters, followed by EXACTLY one space, the the quotes. Change /^ID(\S+) “(.\*?)”/ to /^ID(\S+)\s+"(.\*?)"/ (I’ve tested this with your sample input and it worked fine, assuming there is no space between the beginning of the line and ‘ID…’) Don’t forget to output the table somewhere in able to see if it’s working (your current code has no output). Hope that helps. -Justin