From: "Jan E." <lists@...>
Date: 2012-04-04T15:54:41+09:00
Subject: Re: RegEx for a string between two symbols

Christopher D. wrote in post #1054934:
> Hey, thanks for the reply. I've been practising my ruby but if you have
> a JSON or XML solution I will look at / learn those too as Ruby is often
> used in tandem with XML and JSON
>
> So I'm looking to start up a text file where I can type words and then
> its corresponding definition on the same line. For example.
>
> In dictionary.txt I would have
> word1 - definition1;
> word2 - definition2;

If it's only one word and one definition per line, then XML or JSON is 
probably too much. But I wouldn't use a hyphen as a separator, because 
it may also appear in words or definitions. Use something special like a 
double colon:

word :: definition

You don't have to mark the end of the definition, because you can simply 
read the whole line.

The "parser" could be something like this:

####
dictionary = {}
File.foreach 'C:/dictionary.txt' do |line|
  next if line.strip.empty?             # skip empty lines
  parts = line.split('::').map &:strip  # split line at the double colon
  if parts.length == 2
    word, definition = parts
    raise "multiple definitions for #{word}" if
        dictionary.has_key? word.to_sym
    dictionary[word.to_sym] = definition
  else
    raise "invalid line: #{line}"
  end
end

p dictionary
####

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