# Variable pointers **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 6, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-pointers/78550 "2006-12-06T20:01:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![xyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b5a626/32.png) [@xyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xyz)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 8:01pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-pointers/78550/1 "2006-12-06T20:01:44Z")
I have a situation where I’m walking through an unordered sequence of text (splitting at newlines) looking for particular patterns. If a particular pattern matches then I perform some processing unique to that pattern and assign the output to a particular location (the location could be anything, e.g. local scalar, a particular array element, an instance variable, etc.). WARNING: C syntax approaching. Please restore your seats to their upright and locked positions and apply seat belts. Using “&” (take address) and “\*” (de-reference pointer) from C, conceptually what I want to do is: template = [ [patternRegex, processingProc, &storage] … ] textSequence.each { |line| template.each { |tuple| \*tuple[2] = tuple[1].call(line) if line =~ tuple[0] } } Obviously this could be achieved with eval() but that is very heavyweight. Are there other options? It doesn’t seem that using Symbol’s will work since they’re not addresses (and thus can’t be de-referenced) and they’re scope-independent, i.e. if I use :foo I can’t distinguish between a local variable foo, a method foo(), etc. even if they’re not lexically visible within the current scope. As a kludge I could change tuple[2] to be an integer that indexes into an array and after the main loop is finished manually scatter the array elements to their final locations (note the word “kludge” at the beginning). The locations being stored may be all over the place so collecting them in a single object would be difficult, no less kludgy, and would obfuscate the code. Thanx. Jake ---
**Author:** ![xyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b5a626/32.png) [@xyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xyz)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-pointers/78550/2 "2006-12-07T19:56:25Z")
On 06.12.2006 19:55, xyz wrote: > what I want to do is: > > and after the main loop is finished manually scatter the array elements to their > final locations (note the word “kludge” at the beginning). The locations being > stored may be all over the place so collecting them in a single object would be > difficult, no less kludgy, and would obfuscate the code. I can think of several approaches one of them being: class Foo INSTRUCTIONS = { /(\d+)\s\*+\s\*(\d+)/ =\> lambda {|t, a, b| a.to\_i + b.to\_i}, } def process (enum) result = {} enum.each do |line| INSTRUCTIONS.each do |rx, fun| md = rx.match(line) and result[rx] = fun[\*md.to\_a] end end result end end irb(main):051:0\> Foo.new.process [“1+2”, “3”] =\> {/(\d+)\s\*+\s\*(\d+)/=\>3} Of course, you could use a symbol as label in INSTRUCTIONS and use that to reference results. And then you might as well store multiple results (if it is possible that a pattern matches multiple times). class Foo INSTRUCTIONS = { :sum =\> [/(\d+)\s\*+\s\*(\d+)/, lambda {|t, a, b| a.to\_i + b.to\_i}], } def process (enum) result = Hash.new {|h,k| h[k]=[]} enum.each do |line| INSTRUCTIONS.each do |label, (rx, fun)| md = rx.match(line) and result[label] \<\< fun[\*md.to\_a] end end result end end irb(main):087:0\> Foo.new.process [“1+2”, “3”, " 4 + 4"] =\> {:sum=\>[3, 8]} You can as well hand over the MatchData instance directly to the lambda etc. but I guess you get the picture. Btw, that method also works with an IO instance. Kind regards ``` robert ``` ---
**Author:** ![xyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/x/b5a626/32.png) [@xyz](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/xyz)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2006, 8:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/variable-pointers/78550/3 "2006-12-06T20:45:55Z")
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In article [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid), xyz [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > I have a situation where I’m walking through an unordered sequence of text > (splitting at newlines) looking for particular patterns. If a particular pattern > matches then I perform some processing unique to that pattern and assign the > output to a particular location (the location could be anything, e.g. local > scalar, a particular array element, an instance variable, etc.). You are thinking in “C”, this just doesn’t work well in Ruby. Everything in Ruby is an object and every variable is just a pointer to that object. When you say a = b in Ruby, it means in C a = &b and a always evaluates to \*a > ``` > ] > > ``` > > textSequence.each { |line| > template.each { |tuple| > \*tuple[2] = tuple[1].call(line) if line =~ tuple[0] > } > } > > Obviously this could be achieved with eval() but that is very heavyweight. > > Are there other options? Just use tuple[2] = tuple[1].call(line) if line =~ tuple[0] You can’t easily pass storage around in Ruby, like you can in C. What you pass around is a pointer to an object. The processingProc should handle the createtion of the object, the storage item is just a name for where you store the pointer to the object. If you are managing storage, rather than objects you are doing things the hard way in Ruby. \_ Booker C. Bense -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBRXccaGTWTAjn5N/lAQH8KwQAvIk0tnWmc1aGr3MYFqfg08CBWXa5cBLw rQRJEfnxMuW9WyaHBikO2Gb+aB2CLKMaMl3IfaTNSUK0aJtzuJpBi2/RUa6Mbz1j EwD5qadlV9ZqQM50buQTUx+gGUVuYjXWSU7HKK0LrFfQlF3cD6Bv47DCuqJNToc7 PvLGw2n0Qns= =FwnP -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----