Processing a file of structured data of unknown origin

Rails
1

I have a file with data structured in this way…

http://pastie.org/1347044

So basically it’s

Country
Region
Resort
url
url
url
url
Resort
url
url

Country
Region
Resort
url
Resort
url
url

etc, the data is clearly structured and yaml like - but it’s not yaml I
feel. Anyway - I just wish to create active record objects out of it -
how would I go about processing that file - tips greatly appreciated?

2

On Dec 4, 2010, at 9:38 AM, bingo bob wrote:

etc, the data is clearly structured and yaml like - but it’s not
yaml I
feel. Anyway - I just wish to create active record objects out of it -
how would I go about processing that file - tips greatly appreciated?

I don’t have any specific code for you, but this is how I would attack
it:

  1. Split by lines.
  2. Loop through the lines, using the number of spaces at the beginning
    of the line as a “level counter”.
  3. Whenever the level goes up or down, change to a new model –
    Country, Region, Resort, Url. When the level goes up or down, keep
    track of the preceding model object at the next lower level, as that
    is your parent.
  4. At each line, create a new object of the current model, adding the
    parent reference as appropriate.

Walter