From: Todd Benson <caduceass@...>
Date: 2007-07-25T14:56:45+09:00
Subject: Re: Newbie question, writing to a file

On 7/24/07, Jenny Purcell <dontspamme@spam.com> wrote:
> # Print out results to csv file line by line
>   while i <= count do
>     j = number.detect {|c| position[c - 1] == i + 1}
>     j = j - 1
>     # Push each horse's name, owner, score, pre_points, dice rolls,
> and other info into a new csv file
>     puts CSV.generate_line(["pp#{pole_new[j]}", horse_name[j],
> horse_info[j], owners_initials[j], best_result[j], race_style[j],
> best_time[j], pre_points[j], roll_1[j], roll_2[j], roll_3[j],
> roll_4[j], roll_5[j], score[j], "#{position[j]}(#{count + 1})"])
>     i = i + 1
>   end
>
> Then, what I do is run the program and use 'racing.rb > results.csv'
> to actually write to a results file. I'd like the next step to be that
> it writes to its own results file without me having to name it each
> time I run the program.
>
> How do I set up the CSV lines that I generate to be put in a string
> (or object)  that I can then send to a file?

Here's one way to do it...

File.open('results.csv' , 'w') do |file|
  1.upto 5 do |idx|
    file.puts(CSV.generate_line(["a", "b", "c", idx])
  end
end

which is probably better than the way I usually do it by throwing the
String together first...

str_to_write = ""
1.upto 5 do |idx|
  str << CSV.generate_line(["a", "b", "c", idx]) << "\n"
end
File.open('results.csv', 'w') { |file| file.write str_to_write }

Todd