From: Josh Cheek <josh.cheek@...>
Date: 2011-01-15T20:55:11+09:00
Subject: Re: Retrieving and copying element from array

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On Fri, Jan 14, 2011 at 3:03 PM, Simon Harrison <simon@simonharrison.net>wrote:

> Josh: Thanks for the reply and link to your github example. The thing
> is, this data is coming from a text file. An export from an MS Access
> database. I wouldn't choose to save in that format.
>
> --
> Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.
>
>
Hi, Simon. Okay, well, if we assume that all data will be nested below a
category, and a category is denoted by "category: ", and there isn't leading
or trailing whitespace, and all data under the category is given on one
line, then this should work with your data format.



# goal format for the data, as given in the original post
goal = [
  ["cat1", "item1", "item2", "item3"],
  ["cat2", "item1"],
  ["cat3", "item1", "item2", "item3", "item4"]
]


categories = Array.new
File.foreach "test.txt" do |line|
  if line =~ /^category:/
    categories << [ line.sub(/^category: /,'').chomp ]
  else
    categories.last << line.strip
  end
end

goal == categories # => true



puts File.read('test.txt')
# >> category: cat1
# >>  item1
# >>  item2
# >>  item3
# >> category: cat2
# >>  item1
# >> category: cat3
# >>  item1
# >>  item2
# >>  item3
# >>  item4

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