From: Joseph Paish <jepaish@...>
Date: 2006-04-24T00:38:47+09:00
Subject: Re: how to ensure no blank lines in DATA statements

On Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:20:46 +0900
dblack@wobblini.net wrote:

> Hi --
> 
> On Mon, 24 Apr 2006, Joseph Paish wrote:
> 
> > suppose i have the following piece of code to read some data (input by
> > the user) following __END__
> >
> > while line = DATA.gets
> >  one_record = line.chomp!.split
> >  # do stuff
> >  end
> >
> >
> >
> > __END__
> >
> > bought 2 widgets 17.99
> > sold 12 widgets 22.49
> >
> > bought 11 things 12.99
> >
> > sold 5 things 10.49
> >
> >
> > as you can see, there is a blank line ahead of the first line of data (i
> > don't want that), and there may be one or more blank lines or lines
> > containing spaces after the data or even between the lines of data.
> >
> > i can't control what the user will do here, but i need to take it into
> > account.  any suggestions on how to ensure that any line i read contains
> > the 4 desired fields and doesn't contain anything else (even 4 blank
> > spaces like between the last bought and sold records)?
> 
> Here's a nice way to avoid worrying about the spaces, though it may
> run aground if you have lines that have non-spaces and are malformed:
> 
> require 'scanf'
> 
> DATA.scanf("%s%d%s%f") do |action, num, item, price|
>    puts "#{action} #{num} #{item} at $#{price}, total $#{price * num}"
> end
> 
> Output (with your sample):
> 
> bought 2 widgets at $17.99, total $35.98
> sold 12 widgets at $22.49, total $269.88
> bought 11 things at $12.99, total $142.89
> sold 5 things at $10.49, total $52.45
> 
> 
> David
> 


this is exactly what i needed.

thank you

joe