From: "David A. Black" <dblack@...>
Date: 2004-08-17T00:48:05+09:00
Subject: Re: Rubish Way of extracting elements

Hi --

On Tue, 17 Aug 2004, Daniel V�lkerts wrote:

> I started written a little script to analyse my syslogs. The development 
>   went on very fast, but today I'm searching the rubish way to dissect a 
> string into some parts. For example in my syslog there is a line (valid 
> as described in rfc3146)
> 
> <165> Aug 16 17:01:35 localhost Just a test
> 
> I was trying to reach this form
> 
> var = content
> 
> pri = 165
> timestamp = Aug 16 17:01:35
> device = localhost
> msg = Just a test
> 
> But how do I accomplish this? I read the pickaxe book, but the example I 
> found was about repeating values e.g. | as seperator. Is a suitable 
> regexp the way or should use another technique e.g. String#index etc.?
> 
> 
> Thanks for your time helping me, I'll pay it back if I become a little 
> more rubisher ;)

You could match it to a regular expression, and grab the results in
()-expressions:

  str = "<165> Aug 16 17:01:35 localhost Just a test"

  pri, timestamp, device, msg =
  /<(\d+)>\s+(\w+\s+\d+\s+[\d:]+)\s+(\S+)\s+(.*)/.match(str).captures

Another way would be to use scanf.  This has the advantage that you
get your 165 as an integer (if that's important):

  require 'scanf'
  pri, timestamp, device, msg = str.scanf("<%\d> %15c %s%*c %[\\S\\s]"


(You might have to adjust either the regex or the format string
depending on how consistent and predictable the lines are.)


David

-- 
David A. Black
dblack@wobblini.net