From: Jim Burgess <jack.zelig@...>
Date: 2010-05-01T21:19:48+09:00
Subject: Reading lines from a file into an array

Using ruby, I am trying to read in lines from a two column html table
and store each line in a two element array. This two element array is in
turn stored in one large array.

The table rows look like this:

<tr class="odd">
  <td>Row 1 - Column 1</td>
  <td>Row 1 - Column 2</td>
</tr>
...

And, when I'm done, I hoping for this:
[["row1 - col1", "row1, col2"], ["row2 - col1", "row2, col2"], ...]

Can anyone give me any pointers on the correct way to do this.
The code I have come up with so far is this:

f = File.open("file_containing_table.txt", "r")
lines = f.readlines
array_to_hold_rows= []
index = 0
loop do
  if lines[index] == nil
    break
  elsif lines[index].match "<td"
    array_to_hold_rows << ["#{lines[index]}", "#{lines[index+1]}"]
    index +=2
  else
    index +=1
  end
end

This works and does what I want, but I would like to know if this is the
best / most effective way to go about what I am trying to achieve.

Would be grateful for any help.
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