From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2007-12-13T00:43:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Creating multiple objects in loops

2007/12/12, Richard Harris <richardh06@hotmail.co.uk>:
> Thanks for that but having looked at your solution, it may not be the
> best idea. This is what I am trying to acomplish:
>
> Text File
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ID: 1, entry1               # Can have multiple ID's
> Name: Richard
> Age: 20
> Address: 123 Some Road      # Can have multiple lines of address, not
> fixed
> Address: Some City
> Address: Some Country
> ID: 2
> Name: Richard
> Age: 20
> Address: 123 Some Road
> Address: Some City
> Address: Some Country
> ID: 3
> Name: Richard
> Age: 20
> Address: 123 Some Road
> Address: Some City
> Address: Some Country
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Parse the file and store the information so it can be printed out when
> requested. So the info associated with ID: 1 is stored
> together, info associated with ID: 2 is stored together etc. Then I will
> have an array/hash of id's. The info associated with
> these id's need to be printed, but I might only need id 1 and 2 so I
> will have to search the stored info for the required id's.
>
> I have tried numerous ideas for this but some problem always arises
> which stops me in my tracks. I have tried using hashes, objects etc but
> as my knowledge of Ruby is limited I don't know all the tricks so it
> might be very simple.
>
> Many thanks for any advice and if you can point me in the right
> direction that would be great.

Are ids always showing up in order without holes?  If so, you can
simply store them in arrays

Entry = Struct.new :name, :age, :addresses do
  def initialize() self.addresses = [] end
end

data = []

io.each do |line|
  line.chomp!
  case line
    when /^ID/
      data << Entry.new
    when /^Name:\s*(\S+)/
      data.last.name = $1
...
  end
end

Cheers

robert

-- 
use.inject do |as, often| as.you_can - without end