From: Phrogz <phrogz@...>
Date: 2007-12-05T00:20:08+09:00
Subject: Re: hash

On Dec 4, 7:30 am, Johnathan Smith <stu...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> iv started writing a class which reads the data from a text file and
> counts the number of Tags
>
> however im having a struggle as I want to split the tag and the data
> into a hash i.e the Tag is the index and the data is the rest
>
> if anyone could provide me with any psuedo code i'd be very appreciative
> my code is below
>
> Many Thanks
>
> text file:
>
> Tag: ref1
> Type: Book
> Author: Little, S R
>
> Tag: ref2
> Type: Journal
> Author: Smith, J
>
> Tag: ref3
> Type: Conference Paper
> Author: Williams, M
>
> Tag: ref4
> Type: Book
> Author: Jones, M B

info = {}
last_tag = nil

# Could be File.readlines
DATA.each_line{ |line|
  _, key, data = line.match( /^(\w+): (.+)/ ).to_a
  next unless key # skip blank lines
  if key == "Tag"
    last_tag = data
    info[ data ] = {}
  else
    info[ last_tag ][ key ] = data
  end
}

require 'pp'
pp info
#=> {"ref4 "=>{"Author"=>"Jones, M B", "Type"=>"Book "},
#=>  "ref3 "=>{"Author"=>"Williams, M ", "Type"=>"Conference Paper "},
#=>  "ref2 "=>{"Author"=>"Smith, J ", "Type"=>"Journal "},
#=>  "ref1 "=>{"Author"=>"Little, S R ", "Type"=>"Book "}}

__END__
Tag: ref1
Type: Book
Author: Little, S R

Tag: ref2
Type: Journal
Author: Smith, J

Tag: ref3
Type: Conference Paper
Author: Williams, M

Tag: ref4
Type: Book
Author: Jones, M B