From: suresh <suresh.amritapuri@...>
Date: 2007-11-14T00:55:02+09:00
Subject: reading a column formatted data

Hi

I am quite fresh to ruby. I want to read a column formatted data like
the one below:

Full name		   Q01	Q02	Q03
Anonymous1		Fair	Fair	Fair
Anonymous2		Excellent	Fair	Poor
Anonymous3		Fair	Excellent	Fair
Anonymous1		Poor	Poor	Fair
Anonymous2		Poor	Fair	Fair
Anonymous1		Fair	Fair	Fair
Anonymous3		Excellent	Excellent	Excellent


Depending on the column number, these strings (Fair, Excellent, etc)
must be given a different weight, multiplied by the number of these
strings  occurrences in a column and an index is to be calculated.

I was using excel and the builtin function "countif" of excel to this.
But I want to automate the whole process by using a program

what is the best approach in ruby?

Thank you
suresh