From: William James <w_a_x_man@...>
Date: 2007-09-18T22:15:08+09:00
Subject: Re: finding string matches, in order, in a file


Peter Bailey wrote:
> Hi,
> I've got files I want to parse. I'm using a string scan routine that
> populates an array. I need to pull the entries of that array out, in
> order, eventually. I'm getting an array all right, but, I don't
> understand its order. The first instance in the string, meaning the
> whole file, is way down the list in the array. The first entry in the
> array is an entry that's 300 lines deep into the file. Why isn't the
> first instance in the string, the file, the first entry in the array?

The file may have multiple copies of some entries, and
your regexp may be botched.

>
> xmlfile.scan(/<issueList>\n<issue code=\"[A-Z]{3}\">(.*)<\/issue>\n?/)

I don't like the looks of that regular expression.  Try this one.

/<issueList>\n<issue code="[A-Z]{3}">(.*?)<\/issue>\n?/m