From: "Marcin Mielżyński" <lopx@...>
Date: 2006-09-15T09:10:50+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie regexp question

James Calivar wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I'm trying to split a formatted text file into four separate columns. 
> The data is comprised of lines of text that are bundled into four 
> distinct columns, corresponding to a "Required versus Optional" 
> variable, a requirement number, a requirement classification (R1=Rev 1, 
> F=Future, I=Internal), and a textual description of the requirement.
> 
> My raw data looks like this in the input text file:
> 
> R [01]	R1	The system shall support "emergency call processing"
> R [02]	R1	The system shall support "local call processing"
> R [08]	F	The system shall provide a command-line user interface
> R [723]	F	The system shall provide 6 10/100/1000 Ethernet interfaces
> R [11]	F	The system shall support VoIP networks
> R [398]	R1	The system shall contain 2 control boards
> O [327]	I	The system should support hotswapping of all internal boards
> R [19]	I	The system shall be able to detect transmission errors
> R [631]	F	The system shall continue processing data as long as a call is 
> active.
> 

try this one

open("file").read.scan(/(\w)\s+(.+?)\s+(\w+)\s+(.*?)\n?$/){|req,num,cls,dsc| 
...}

lopex