From: "Jesús Gabriel y Galán" <jgabrielygalan@...>
Date: 2013-04-24T17:57:56+09:00
Subject: Re: BEGINNER - Convert csv file to tsv

On Wed, Apr 24, 2013 at 10:45 AM, Jon R. <lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am a beginner at Ruby, but I am trying to convert a csv file into a
> tsv file.
>
> The data is stored in source.csv and I need to out put it to a file in
> the same directory called source.tsv, I also need to cater to output to
> .txt and .xml, but starting with tsv first.
>
>
> Contents of source.csv
> "Firstname","Lastname","Postcode"
> "John","Smith","EC1"
> "Paula","James","NE13"
>
>
> Output to file source.tsv
> Firstname  Lastname  Postcode
> John  Smith  EC1
> Paula  James  NE13
>
>
> I have started with this:
>
> filename = ARGV.first
> output_file_format = ARGV.second
>
> file = open(filename, "r+")
> valid_file_formats = ["tsv"]
>
> if output_file_format == "tsv"
>   File.open (filename, "r") do |f|
>     new_file = File.open("source.tsv", "w")
>                 f.each_line do |line|
>                 fields = line.split (""\n")
>                 fields.each { |fd| fd = "\"#{fd}\""
>                 new_file.write(fields.join(",")
>   end
>   new_file.close
> end
>
>
> I understand what I need to do in my head, for each line remove the " or
> , characters and replace the , character with a tab (\t), but I am
> struggling with the syntax.
>
> Using a bit of help from http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/4097630#new
>
> Thanks in advance

I would use the csv in the stdlib to parse the csv:

http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib-2.0/libdoc/csv/rdoc/index.html

Jesus.