From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2011-12-08T17:45:53+09:00
Subject: Re: remove newline characters in d anchors

On Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 8:54 AM, mythpills P. <pillay.mithun@gmail.com> wrote:
> hi
>
> i am working on this code where i need to list the files in a dir and
> store it in a xml, which i managed to do. however in the generated xml
> there are newline characters (\n) appearing before and after the actual
> text value of each node.
>
> below is the code i am using
>
> require 'rexml/document'
> require 'find'
>
> doc = REXML::Document.new
> main = doc.add_element 'main'
>
> main.attributes['name'] = ""
>
> # Find.find('./'){|path| puts path[2,path.length] }
> Find.find('./'){|path|
>  if path != './dirlisting.rb'
>    if ! File::directory? ( path )
>      newfile = main.add_element 'file'
>      newfile.text = path[2,path.length]

I think you want

newfile.text = path[2...path.length]

or

newfile.text = path[2..-1]

That won't solve your nl issue but is more correct.

>  end
>  end
> }
>
> outfile = open('dirlist.xml', 'w')
> doc.write(outfile, 0)

You do not close the file properly.  Better do

open('dirlist.xml', 'w') {|outfile| doc.write(outfile)}

> how can i get rid of those line breaks in each nodes and have a clean
> node with just the text value?

You want REXML::Formatters::Pretty#compact

irb(main):001:0> doc = REXML::Document.new
"<root><foo>123</foo><bar><foo>444</foo></bar></root>"
=> <UNDEFINED> ... </>
irb(main):002:0> fmt = REXML::Formatters::Pretty.new
=> #<REXML::Formatters::Pretty:0x10615890 @indentation=2, @level=0,
@ie_hack=false, @width=80, @compact=false>
irb(main):003:0> fmt.compact
=> false

irb(main):004:0> fmt.compact=true
=> true
irb(main):005:0> fmt.write(doc, $stdout)
<root>
  <foo>123</foo>
  <bar>
    <foo>444</foo>
  </bar>
</root>=> [<?xml ... ?>, <root> ... </>]

irb(main):006:0> fmt.compact=false
=> false
irb(main):007:0> fmt.write(doc, $stdout)
<root>
  <foo>
    123
  </foo>
  <bar>
    <foo>
      444
    </foo>
  </bar>
</root>=> [<?xml ... ?>, <root> ... </>]

Kind regards

robert

-- 
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