From: anne001 <anne@...>
Date: 2005-11-21T10:37:22+09:00
Subject: Parsing excel CVS data on a mac OSX to extract blocks of cells

I would like to parse some excel CVS data which has a repetitive block
pattern

"Experiment ID:	1",,,,,,,,,,,,
"Subject ID:	1013938829432171e868c340.
Trial,stimulus,time,type,field1,field2,text_response,Abs. time of
response,,,,,
26,undefined,14828,KEY,RETURN,UNUSED,DCS,Sat Oct 15 17:48:04 GMT-0400
2005,,,,,
23,undefined,15078,KEY,RETURN,UNUSED,244,Sat Oct 15 17:48:19 GMT-0400
2005,,,,,
7,nixontrialleft copy.pct [TAG: 1],5953,KEY,1,UNUSED,,Sat Oct 15
17:49:24 GMT-0400 2005,,,,,
8,nixontrialfront copy.pct [TAG: 3],6250,KEY,3,UNUSED,,Sat Oct 15
17:49:31 GMT-0400 2005,,,,,
9,nixontrialright copy.pct [TAG: 2],2469,KEY,2,UNUSED,,Sat Oct 15
17:49:34 GMT-0400 2005,,,,,
#####
more data
######
,,,,,,,,,,4374.347222,,
,,,,,,,,,,,,1.00
,,,,,,,,,,,,0.93
### and a new block starts
"Experiment ID:	3",,,,,,,,,,,,0.92
....

Question 1:
------------------
Arr = IO.readlines(File.expand_path("~/Desktop/FaceRetest.cvs"))
has a length of 1, why?
I noticed that the puts has ^M everywhere
Arr =
IO.readlines(File.expand_path("~/Desktop/FaceRetest.cvs"),sep_string="^M")
seems to split the array into lines.
Arr = Arr.split(",")
gives me a message, private method `split' called
puts Arr.length gets me no response. I expected split to take the 1D
array and transform it into a 2D array.

What is the best way to get the excel CVS data into a Ruby 2D array for
further analysis?

Question 2:
-----------------
Once I have a 2D array, what is the best way to find the index of the
key word Trial (which starts the data I want).

In matlab, I would do something like,
Find the index pair (I,J) at which Array = Trial
If J==1
Extract the array starting at row I+1 to I+82, for columns [2, 3, and
5]
and I would love some pointers at Ruby structures, methods, etc I need
to look at. 
- First ruby code -- Thanks for your help