Convert xml to csv in ruby and write it to a text file

Ruby
1

Hello guys ! I’m new in Ruby…Hope you can help because i’m trying a
lot and just can’t see where is the problem…
I have this xml, and not only this, i want just for any xml file that i
might put :

<?xml version="1.0"?> p1 Skoda 10000 4 Czech Republic p2 Mercedes 50000 5 Germany p3 Alfa Romeo 18000 19 Italy p4 Fiat 1500 15000 Italy

AND USING THE CODE BELOW:

require ‘nokogiri’
require ‘pp’

xmldoc = Nokogiri::XML(IO.read(“xmlinputfile.xml”))
columns = xmldoc.xpath(’//[position()=1]/*’).map(&:name)

print “give csv output file\n”
csvoutputfile = gets.chomp
File.open(csvoutputfile, ‘w’) do |f|
rows =[]
xmldoc.xpath(’//’).each do |row_xml|
row_values = []
f.puts " #{rows << row_values}"
row_xml.xpath(’./*’).each do |field|
f.puts “#{row_values << field.text}”

      end

end
pp rows

end

I WANT TO CONVERT IT TO CSV FORMAT LIKE THIS:

id,name,price,stock,country
p1,Skoda,10000,4,Czech Republic,
p2,Mercedes,50000,5,Germany,
.
.
.
. and so on

THE RUBY CODE OF CONVERTION WORKS FINE BUT ONLY WHEN I RUN IT IN THE
COMMAND PROMT, ONLY THERE IS SHOWS THE CSV FORMAT RIGHT

BUT I WANT TO WRITE IT IN A TXT FILE AND THIS IS WHAT I GET WHEN I TRY
WRITING IT INTO A txt :

[[]]

[“p1”]
[“p1”, “Skoda”]
[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”]
[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”, “4”]
[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”, “4”, “Czech Republic”]
[[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”, “4”, “Czech Republic”], []]
[“p2”]
[“p2”, “Mercedes”]
[“p2”, “Mercedes”, “50000”]
[“p2”, “Mercedes”, “50000”, “5”]
[“p2”, “Mercedes”, “50000”, “5”, “Germany”]

[[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”, “4”, “Czech Republic”], [“p2”, “Mercedes”,
“50000”, “5”, “Germany”], []]
[“p3”]
[“p3”, “Alfa Romeo”]
[“p3”, “Alfa Romeo”, “18000”]
[“p3”, “Alfa Romeo”, “18000”, “19”]
[“p3”, “Alfa Romeo”, “18000”, “19”, “Italy”]
[[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”, “4”, “Czech Republic”], [“p2”, “Mercedes”,
“50000”, “5”, “Germany”],
[“p3”, “Alfa Romeo”, “18000”, “19”, “Italy”],[]]

PLEASE CAN ANYBODY SHOW ME MY MISTAKE AND WHAT SHOULD I DO BECAUSE I
CANNOT FIND IT… AND I
DON’T UNDERSTAND THE REASON THAT IT SHOWS IT LIKE THIS IN THE txt FILE.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE !!

2

On Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 3:04 PM, Alfred Pier
[email protected] wrote:

10000

15000
xmldoc = Nokogiri::XML(IO.read(“xmlinputfile.xml”))
columns = xmldoc.xpath(‘//[position()=1]/*’).map(&:name)

IMHO this is sufficient as XPath: ‘//[1]/*’

print “give csv output file\n”
csvoutputfile = gets.chomp
File.open(csvoutputfile, ‘w’) do |f|
rows =[]
xmldoc.xpath(‘//’).each do |row_xml|
row_values = []
f.puts " #{rows << row_values}"

You should separate filling your data structure from doing CSV output
above. Right now you are printing rows for every record!

row_xml.xpath('./*').each do |field|
   f.puts "#{row_values << field.text}"

Again, you should separate filling your data structure from doing CSV
output above (or completely get rid of “rows”) e.g.

puts row_xml.xpath(‘./*’).map(&:text).join

end

end
pp rows

You are seeing output of that last line.

end

I would also consider using CSV for writing because that will give you
proper quoting

CSV.open(“foo.txt”, “w”, col_sep:“,”) do |csv|
…
csv << row_xml.xpath(‘./*’).map(&:text)
…
end

THE RUBY CODE OF CONVERTION WORKS FINE BUT ONLY WHEN I RUN IT IN THE
COMMAND PROMT, ONLY THERE IS SHOWS THE CSV FORMAT RIGHT

BUT I WANT TO WRITE IT IN A TXT FILE AND THIS IS WHAT I GET WHEN I TRY
WRITING IT INTO A txt :

Do you use output redirection for your script?

[“p2”, “Mercedes”, “50000”]
[[“p1”, “Skoda”, “10000”, “4”, “Czech Republic”], [“p2”, “Mercedes”,
“50000”, “5”, “Germany”],
[“p3”, “Alfa Romeo”, “18000”, “19”, “Italy”],[]]

PLEASE CAN ANYBODY SHOW ME MY MISTAKE AND WHAT SHOULD I DO BECAUSE I
CANNOT FIND IT… AND I
DON’T UNDERSTAND THE REASON THAT IT SHOWS IT LIKE THIS IN THE txt FILE.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE !!

Please do NOT shout.

robert