Record-separator is a regular expression

=begin

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator. Let's fix that. The substring matched by the
record-separator is automatically removed from the record, but it
can be obtained by RecSep#terminator.

Typical usage:

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
  reader = RecSep.new( handle, /^\d+\.\n/ )
  reader.each {|x| p x }
}

=end

class RecSep

  def initialize( file_handle, record_separator )
    @handle = file_handle
    @buffer = ""
    @rec_sep = record_separator
    @terminator = nil
  end

  def get_rec
    ## The record-separator may be something like /\n\s*\n/,
    ## so we read enough to let it match as much as possible.
    loop do
      @rec_sep.match( @buffer )
      break if $~ && $~.post_match.size > 0
      s = @handle.gets( "\n" )
      break if not s
      @buffer << s
    end

    if $~
      @buffer = $~.post_match
      @terminator = $~.to_s
      $~.pre_match
    else
      @terminator = nil
      return nil if "" == @buffer
      s, @buffer = @buffer, ""
      s
    end
  end

  def each
    while s = self.get_rec
      yield s
    end
  end

  def terminator
    @terminator
  end
  
end

Er, huh?

data = <<ENDDATA
name-----age-----size
Gavin 32 33
ENDDATA

p data.split( /-+| +|\n/ )
#=> ["name", "age", "size", "Gavin", "32", "33"]

···

On Nov 29, 2005, at 6:22 AM, William James wrote:

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator.

I'd prefer something integrated with IO, e.g.

File.open("foo") {|io| io.each_chunk(/:/) {|ch| p ch}}

module RegularIOChunks
  def each_chunk(rx, read_buffer = 1024)
    buff = ""
    loop do
      until ( match = ( rx.match( buff ) ) )
        part = read(read_buffer)

        if part.nil?
          yield buff
          return self
        end

        buff << part
      end

      yield match.pre_match
      buff = match.post_match
    end
  end
end

class IO
  include RegularIOChunks
end

Kind regards

    robert

···

William James <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> wrote:

=begin

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator. Let's fix that. The substring matched by the
record-separator is automatically removed from the record, but it
can be obtained by RecSep#terminator.

Typical usage:

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
reader = RecSep.new( handle, /^\d+\.\n/ )
reader.each {|x| p x }
}

This version reads farther ahead in an attempt to cope
with greedy regular expressions.

=begin

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator. Let's fix that. The substring matched by the
record-separator is automatically removed from the record, but it
can be obtained by RecSep#terminator.

Typical usage:

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
  reader = RecSep.new( handle, /^\d+\.\n/ )
  reader.each {|x| p x }
}

=end

class RecSep

  def initialize( file_handle, record_separator, chunk_size=10_000 )
    @handle = file_handle
    @rec_sep = record_separator
    @chunk_size = chunk_size
    @buffer = ""
    @terminator = nil
  end

  attr_reader :terminator, :buffer

  def get_rec
    ## The record-separator may be something like /\n\s*\n/,
    ## so we read until there's something left over in the buffer
    ## after the match.
    loop do
      @rec_sep.match( @buffer )
      break if $~ && $~.post_match.size > 0
      s = @handle.read( @chunk_size )
      break if not s
      @buffer << s
    end

    if $~
      @buffer = $~.post_match
      @terminator = $~.to_s
      $~.pre_match
    else
      @terminator = nil
      return nil if "" == @buffer
      s, @buffer = @buffer, ""
      s
    end
  end

  def each
    while s = self.get_rec
      yield s
    end
  end

end

Third version. And here's an example of using it to remove
all html tags from a file:

File.open("data1.htm"){|handle|
  reader = RecSep.new( handle, /<.*?>/m )
  reader.each {|x| print x }
}

···

-----------------------------------------------------------

=begin

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator. Let's fix that. The substring matched by the
record-separator is automatically removed from the record, but it
can be obtained by RecSep#terminator.

Typical usage:

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
  reader = RecSep.new( handle, /^\d+\.\n/ )
  reader.each {|x| p x }
}

Sometimes it may be necessary to keep the regular expression from
matching less than it should by increasing the look-ahead distance
(measured in characters):

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
  reader = RecSep.new( handle, /(^.*\n)\1+/m, 4096 )
  reader.each {|x| p x }
}

=end

class RecSep

  def initialize( file_handle, record_separator,
      minimal_look_ahead = 1024 )
    @handle = file_handle
    @rec_sep = record_separator
    @min_look_ahead = minimal_look_ahead
    @buffer = ""
    @terminator = nil
    @count = 0
  end

  attr_reader :terminator, :count, :buffer

  def get_rec
    ## Make sure the buffer has a reasonable amount of material.
    if @buffer.size < (3 * @min_look_ahead / 2) && !@handle.eof?
      @buffer << @handle.read( 2 * @min_look_ahead - @buffer.size)
    end
    ## To cope with all kinds of greedy regular expressions,
    ## we read until there are at least @min_look_ahead bytes
    ## left over in the buffer after the match.
    loop do
      @rec_sep.match( @buffer )
      break if $~ && $~.post_match.size >= @min_look_ahead
      s = @handle.read( @min_look_ahead )
      break if not s
      @buffer << s
    end

    if $~
      @buffer = $~.post_match
      @terminator = $~.to_s
      @count += 1
      $~.pre_match
    else
      @terminator = nil
      return nil if "" == @buffer
      @count += 1
      s, @buffer = @buffer, ""
      s
    end
  end

  def each
    while s = self.get_rec
      yield s
    end
  end

end

William is talking about the separator used by IO objects, $/.

James Edward Gray II

···

On Nov 29, 2005, at 7:51 AM, Gavin Kistner wrote:

On Nov 29, 2005, at 6:22 AM, William James wrote:

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator.

Er, huh?

data = <<ENDDATA
name-----age-----size
Gavin 32 33
ENDDATA

p data.split( /-+| +|\n/ )
#=> ["name", "age", "size", "Gavin", "32", "33"]

Robert Klemme wrote:

=begin

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator. Let's fix that. The substring matched by the
record-separator is automatically removed from the record, but it
can be obtained by RecSep#terminator.

Typical usage:

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
reader = RecSep.new( handle, /^\d+\.\n/ )
reader.each {|x| p x }
}

I'd prefer something integrated with IO, e.g.

File.open("foo") {|io| io.each_chunk(/:/) {|ch| p ch}}

module RegularIOChunks
def each_chunk(rx, read_buffer = 1024)
   buff = ""
   loop do
     until ( match = ( rx.match( buff ) ) )
       part = read(read_buffer)

       if part.nil?
         yield buff
         return self
       end

       buff << part
     end

     yield match.pre_match
     buff = match.post_match
   end
end
end

class IO
include RegularIOChunks
end

Kind regards

   robert

This would *not* be easy to implement. Consider backtracking (do we put it back in the stream?) and greediness (how much do we read?). Unless you want to forbid greedy regular expressions and ignore backtracking (not to mention certain switches), this gets real ugly, real quick.

This has come up wrt Perl as well on p5p. Take a look here for one thread in midstream:

http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.perl5.porters/64830

Rumor has it that setting $/ to a regex will be legal in Perl 6, but I think there will be several restrictions.

Regards,

Dan

···

William James <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> wrote:

Ah...thanks :slight_smile:

···

On Nov 29, 2005, at 7:08 AM, James Edward Gray II wrote:

On Nov 29, 2005, at 7:51 AM, Gavin Kistner wrote:

On Nov 29, 2005, at 6:22 AM, William James wrote:

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator.

p data.split( /-+| +|\n/ )
#=> ["name", "age", "size", "Gavin", "32", "33"]

William is talking about the separator used by IO objects, $/.

Daniel Berger wrote:

Robert Klemme wrote:

=begin

Unlike Gawk and Mawk, Ruby won't accept a regular expression as a
record-separator. Let's fix that. The substring matched by the
record-separator is automatically removed from the record, but it
can be obtained by RecSep#terminator.

Typical usage:

File.open("stuff.txt"){|handle|
reader = RecSep.new( handle, /^\d+\.\n/ )
reader.each {|x| p x }
}

I'd prefer something integrated with IO, e.g.

File.open("foo") {|io| io.each_chunk(/:/) {|ch| p ch}}

module RegularIOChunks
def each_chunk(rx, read_buffer = 1024)
   buff = ""
   loop do
     until ( match = ( rx.match( buff ) ) )
       part = read(read_buffer)

       if part.nil?
         yield buff
         return self
       end

       buff << part
     end

     yield match.pre_match
     buff = match.post_match
   end
end
end

class IO
include RegularIOChunks
end

Kind regards

   robert

This would *not* be easy to implement. Consider backtracking (do we
put it back in the stream?) and greediness (how much do we read?).
Unless you want to forbid greedy regular expressions and ignore
backtracking (not to mention certain switches), this gets real ugly,
real quick.

Right! My main point was that I'd prefer a solution that is integrated
with IO, i.e. no extra instance needs to be created (at least not
explicitely). Just a question of usability.

One implementation option would be to continue reading not until the first
match but until matches don't differ any more. That would deal at least
with cases like /a{3,10}/ where the sequence is cut in the middle of a
sequence of 10 "a"'s. And you would get a match for the first half while
you wanted to match the whole sequence.

This has come up wrt Perl as well on p5p. Take a look here for one
thread in midstream:

Re: Ideas for 5.10 - nntp.perl.org

Rumor has it that setting $/ to a regex will be legal in Perl 6, but
I think there will be several restrictions.

As you mention, the general problem with applying regexps is a conceptual
one: because of greedy quantifiers in the worst case the whole file is
read into memory (just consider using /.+/ as delimiter) which doesn't fit
well with the streaming approach. :slight_smile:

Kind regards

    robert

···

William James <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> wrote: