From: Sarah Tanembaum <sarah.tanembaum@...>
Date: 2004-05-04T12:28:59+09:00
Subject: Regex question(how easy/hard to do it in ruby)

Pointers, please...

I have this text in a comma delimited file with the following
characteristic:

ccc-123456, <multiline data>,

Field number:

1a - its always begin with 1 to 3 characters followed by
      a dash, e.g JKL-, A-, NM-, PQ-

1b - after the dash, it follows by numbers starting from
     1 to 99999

2 -  a multiline data with either or both newline chars(\n)
       and/or cariage-return char(\r), or both(\r\n). This field
       might include special characters such as a
       single(') or double(") quote, a space, characters
       with ascii number > 127 - accented character,
       umlaud, etc ...

3 -  this field contain at least 2 line to at most 5 line of
       data where each line might be
       Begin with 2-3 chars, e.g GH@OPRJGPF1234
       followed by an "@", 1-7chars, and followed by
       1-4 numbers

My question is :

1a. how to parse the first field(field 1a) so I can manipulate/rename it to
a new label dending on what label they have currently

1b. in field 1b, instead of just 1 number, I'd like to pad
them with leading zero so, 1 -> 000001,
1494 -> 001494, 560987->560987(no change).

2. capture 2nd field and escape the special characters with ascii number

3. capture 3rd field and parse them as well just as field 1.

THanks