From: Daniel Berger <djberge@...>
Date: 2003-06-24T23:50:10+09:00
Subject: Re: Operate on a range of lines in a file.



Robert Klemme wrote:
> "Brian Candler" <B.Candler@pobox.com> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
> news:20030624075527.GC57124@uk.tiscali.com...
> 
>>On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 11:02:58AM +0900, Jim Bob wrote:
>>
>>>I'm hoping someone can jog my memory here. Say I've got a file which
>>>contains the keywords "START" and "END", with several lines in
>>
> between.
> 
>>>Suppose I want to operate on everything between START and END
>>
> (inclusive
> 
>>>or not, doesn't really matter, I don't think).

Read in paragraph mode.  Set $/ to "END".

# Sample source file:

# test.txt
START
This is some text
This is some more text
foo
END
START
bar
baz
blahblahblah
END
START
Last paragraph
Hello World
END

# Sample source

# paratest.rb
file = "test.txt"
$/ = "END"
n = 0

IO.foreach(file){ |para|
    print "\nPARA #: #{n}\n"
    puts "========="
    puts para
    n += 1
}

# Sample output

 >ruby paratest.rb

PARA #: 0
=========
START
This is some text
This is some more text
foo
END

PARA #: 1
=========

START
bar
baz
blahblahblah
END

PARA #: 2
=========

START
Last paragraph
Hello World
END

PARA #: 3
=========

You may need to deal with the last element properly.

Regards,

Dan