From: Stewart Midwinter <stewart@..._midwinter.ca>
Date: 2002-05-06T13:13:38+09:00
Subject: Re: newbie Q: how to strip blank lines from file?

Well, I found a solution to my problem using code examples on-line for "The 
Ruby Way", chapter 4; specifically, using p222c.rb and p230.rb.  Here is my 
version, including some non-essential additional features that comment on 
the lines in the text.  Of course, David Black's solution is much shorter 
and more elegant; thanks David!

---

arr = IO.readlines("lists.html")
lines = arr.size
puts "myfile has #{lines} lines in it."

longest = arr.collect {|x| x.length}.max
puts "The longest line in it has #{longest} characters."

shortest = arr.collect {|x| x.length}.min
puts "The shortest line in it has #{shortest} characters."

File.open("lists.out","w") do |file|
  arr.each do |line|
    file.puts line if line =~ /\S/
  end
end

-- 
Stewart Midwinter
stewart 'at' midwinter 'dot' ca