From: Eero Saynatkari Date: 2006-08-11T02:16:40+09:00 Subject: Re: using YAML? Peter Bailey wrote: > I have a spreadsheet with 3 columns in it, and 174 rows. I need to > cross-reference the items in one column with their corresponding entry > in the other column. Here is a sample with the first 3 entries in this > table. > > File Prefix Service Code Publication Title > aacmc7p AACM00 Affirmative Action Compliance Manual > acm059p BACM00 BNA/ACCA Compliance Manual > acm061p BACM00 BNA/ACCA Compliance Manual, Interim Index > Update > > I need to look at filenames coming into a directory, see what their > "file prefix" is, based on column 1 above, and then notate in a separate > variable the contents of column 2. I'm needing to ascertain what the > company accounting code is for files being sent to our printer. > > Should I do this with just an array, or could I use YAML? Well, YAML is a serialisation format so it is really not something you would use as runtime data storage. An Array or a Hash would certainly work. If I misunderstood you and you were looking for a file format, then YAML would work great. When you YAML.load the file, you will get your Array/Hash and you can also YAML.dump data into the file. The file format would look like this: --- - - acmcp7p - AACM00 - Affirmative # ... - - # ... Or this: --- - prefix: acmcp7p code: AACM00 title: Affirmative #... - prefix: # ... # ... > Thanks a lot, > Peter -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.