From: Samantha <rubygeekgirl@...>
Date: 2007-03-08T01:32:23+09:00
Subject: Re: Can someone point me in the right direction? Pipe Delimited Files   & Hashes...

Robert Klemme wrote:
> On 07.03.2007 16:33, Samantha wrote:
>> Hello all,
>>
>> I have a file that is not a normal csv or tab delimited file.  It is 
>> delimited with the pipe | character.
>>
>> I Googled and found someone had posted how to parse it... That's all 
>> fine and well, but now I need to figure out how I'm going to either 
>> (a) import it into a MySQL database or (b) put it in some sort of 
>> container that will let me access each field (like an array or a hash).
>>
>> If I go through the hash, I'll probably need to assign each field in 
>> the file a key, and then populate it.  I'm having a hard time 
>> figuring this out.
>>
>> If I go the route of MySQL  I know that I'll probably end up using 
>> ActiveRecord.
>>
>>
>> This is what I have so far that I found from someone's blog (I got 
>> the concept from someone's blog and then modified it a bit to see 
>> what it was doing and what it would do in relation to my file. What 
>> this does, obviously, is puts out the info, a new line between each 
>> field, and an extra linefeed between each row... (each group - boy, 
>> am I articulate today or WHAT?!)
>>
>> File.open("i put the filename here").each do |record|
>>  record.split("|").each do |field|
>>    field.chomp!
>>    puts field
>>  end
>> end
>>
>>
>> So, what I want it to do, is say I have the following fields in the | 
>> delimited file:
>>
>> category | subcategory | description
>>
>> How do I make that stuff into a hash?  I should probably start out 
>> small by putting it into a hash first, and then figure out how to 
>> deal with it in MySQL.
>>
>> If someone could point me in the right direction, of possible 
>> libraries that would help or the such, I'd love to go read there and 
>> study on it and try to figure it out.  Not asking for answers, just 
>> asking for resources. :)
>
> You pretty much got it already.  Just add this:
>
> FIELDS = [:category, :subcategory, :description]
> db = []
>
> File.foreach("in") do |line|
>   line.chomp!
>   rec = {}
>   FIELDS.zip(line.split("|")) do |name, val|
>     rec[name]=val if val
>   end
>   db << rec
> end
>
> # work with db
>
> (untested)
>
> Kind regards
>
>     robert
>
>
Thank you, Robert!  I'm going to need to figure out what each thing 
does. :) 

I really want to make sure I grok everything.  Again, thanks!

-- 
Samantha

http://www.babygeek.org/

"Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all 
things are at risk."
  --Ralph Waldo Emerson