From: "Charles L. Snyder" <clsnyder@...>
Date: 2006-01-09T18:18:01+09:00
Subject: simple match of items in 2 arrays

Hi

Inexperienced ruby user question:

I have 2 large csv files:
1) Zipdata = basically a frequency table of zipcodes:
02115, 10
64108, 9
99234, 8  etc

2) Ziplookup (ziplu) = several column table of data assoc with
zipcodes:
02115, +43.59906, -75,99343, Hoboken, NJ, Johnson Cty
55021, +55.5454, - 64,8585, Kansas City, MO, Jackson Cty

I am trying to take each entry in the zipdata and compare the zipcode
to the lookup table
When a match is found, combine the data into a new line /
multidimensional hash table eg -
02115, 10, +43.59906, -75,99343, Hoboken, NJ, Johnson Cty

Here is what I have:
outf = File.read "ZIP_CODES.txt"
ziplu=[]
zipdata = []
result = []

outf.each {|e| ziplu.push e.chomp}

# open the csv file of zip code occurences and their frequency (zips),
and add each zipcode to an array (zipdata)
doc = File.read "zips.txt"
doc.each {|f| zipdata.push f}

#compare each line from zipsdata to the lookup file and put into new
array
result.push(zipdata.each {|a| ziplu.find_all{|x| /a/ =~ x})

I can't get the comparison to work, and don't know what format to put
the result into (hash, array of arrays, file) -  from which I can
easily output the results (ie., lat long, city, state) by zipcode...

Any guidance appreciated..

CLS