csv help

[charlie bowman]

Can anyone point me to a good tutorial on csv files and ruby. I've read
the docs that go along with the standard csv library but it's hard to
put it all together. I'm trying to write a simple timekeeper application
using csv files but I don't really know where to start. Maybe someone
can point out the many flaws in this beginners attempt. Currently all
I'm trying to do is create a row of time data each time the app is ran.

require 'csv'
class TimeKeeper

## constant of where the csv file is stored
@@csv_file = "/shared/home/cmbowma/.timeclock"

def initialize
end

def read
@data = String.new
CSV.parse open(@@csv_file).read do |row|
@data << row.to_s << ','
end
@data
end

def write(data)
writer = CSV.open(@@csv_file, 'w')
writer << data
writer.close
end
end

csv = TimeKeeper.new
@data = csv.read.to_a
time = Time.now
@data << [time]
csv.write(@data)

 

[James Edward Gray II]

def read
@data = String.new
CSV.parse open(@@csv_file).read do |row|
@data << row.to_s << ','
end
@data
end

To read a CSV file into an Array, try:

array_of_csv_rows = CSV.read("my_file.csv")

If you want to read CSV row by row, use:

CSV.foeach("my_file.csv") do |row
# use row here
end

Hope that helps.

James Edward Gray II

 

[Gene Tani]

Can anyone point me to a good tutorial on csv files and ruby. I've read
the docs that go along with the standard csv library but it's hard to
put it all together.

Here's some stuff to look at:

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/166736
http://redhanded.hobix.com/bits/howDoYouParseTabSeparatedValues.html
http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/163345

pickax 2, page 663 discusses CSV lib

http://rubyforge.org/projects/fastercsv/
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2003/09/18/ruby_csv.html?page=1