# Memo to self
**URL:** https://rubytalk.org/t/memo-to-self/25064
**Category:** ruby-talk
**Created:** [20 February 2006 02:18 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/memo-to-self/25064 "2006-02-20T02:18:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@John\_Carter](https://rubytalk.org/u/John_Carter)
#### Post date: [20 February 2006 02:18 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/memo-to-self/25064/1 "2006-02-20T02:18:14Z")
Never under estimate what you can achieve with
IO.read( "filename").scan(%r{}mx) do |match|
end
Especial as you can control how greedy the regex is with .\*?
I just deleted a lot of code and replaced it with one line.
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : [john.carter@tait.co.nz](mailto:john.carter@tait.co.nz)
New Zealand
Carter's Clarification of Murphy's Law.
"Things only ever go right so that they may go more spectacularly wrong later."
From this principle, all of life and physics may be deduced.
---
### Author:  [@HAL\_9000](https://rubytalk.org/u/HAL_9000)
#### Post date: [20 February 2006 02:20 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/memo-to-self/25064/2 "2006-02-20T02:20:55Z")
John Carter wrote:
> Never under estimate what you can achieve with
> IO.read( "filename").scan(%r{}mx) do |match|
> end
>
> Especial as you can control how greedy the regex is with .\*?
>
> I just deleted a lot of code and replaced it with one line.
Well, as your self.memo included the rest of us, how about
sharing the example?
Hal
---
### Author:  [@W\_James](https://rubytalk.org/u/W_James)
#### Post date: [20 February 2006 11:38 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/memo-to-self/25064/3 "2006-02-20T11:38:32Z")
John Carter wrote:
> Never under estimate what you can achieve with
> IO.read( "filename").scan(%r{}mx) do |match|
> end
>
> Especial as you can control how greedy the regex is with .\*?
>
> I just deleted a lot of code and replaced it with one line.
>
> John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
> Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
> PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : john.carter@tait.co.nz
> New Zealand
>
> Carter's Clarification of Murphy's Law.
>
> "Things only ever go right so that they may go more spectacularly wrong later."
>
> From this principle, all of life and physics may be deduced.
# Read and parse the first file on the command line.
gets(nil).scan( //mx ) { |s|
}
# Read and parse the rest of the files.
ARGF.read.scan( //mx ) { |s|
}
---
### Author:  [@John\_Carter](https://rubytalk.org/u/John_Carter)
#### Post date: [23 February 2006 01:19 UTC](https://rubytalk.org/t/memo-to-self/25064/4 "2006-02-23T01:19:35Z")
Ok. Just quickly. I had a file of the format...
blah
Command :
some stuff
some more stuff I \
want with line continuation \
characters
blah
Command :
more some stuff
more some more stuff I \
want with line continuation \
characters
blah
...
that I wanted transformed into
some stuff
some more stuff I want with line continuation characters
more some stuff
more some more stuff I want with line continuation characters
So I started write a routine to fix up the \ characters yield fixed lines and then a state machine to search for 'Command:' and gather everything until the blank line and then skip until...
I start playing with Generator since I realised I could then keep everything in a
each\_something do |thing|
yield other\_thing( thing)
end
pattern instead of doing state machines and then I threw everything away and replaced it with..
File.read( "big\_file").scan(%r{\nCommand\ :\n(.\*?)\n\n}mx) do |command|
puts $1.gsub( %r{\\\n}mx, '')
end
and then
everyone.send( :memo, "to self")
John Carter Phone : (64)(3) 358 6639
Tait Electronics Fax : (64)(3) 359 4632
PO Box 1645 Christchurch Email : john.carter@tait.co.nz
New Zealand
Carter's Clarification of Murphy's Law.
"Things only ever go right so that they may go more spectacularly wrong later."
From this principle, all of life and physics may be deduced.
> **ยทยทยท**
>
> On Mon, 20 Feb 2006, Hal Fulton wrote:
>
> > John Carter wrote:
> >
> > > Never under estimate what you can achieve with
> > > IO.read( "filename").scan(%r{}mx) do |match|
> > > end
> > >
> > > Especial as you can control how greedy the regex is with .\*?
> > >
> > > I just deleted a lot of code and replaced it with one line.
> >
> > Well, as your self.memo included the rest of us, how about
> > sharing the example?