Question

I am trying to do file.each_char right after a file.each_line, but it never gets called when it is like this. If I get rid of the file.each_line, the file.each_char call works perfectly.

Here’s my code for reference:

file.each_line do |line|
  if line =~ /^\s*$/
    next
  end
  lines += 1
end

file.each_char do |char|
  if char =~ /\s/
    next
  end
  chars += 1
end

How can I manage a file.each_char call right after file.each_line?

Answer 1

When you run each_line, it leaves it pointing at the end of your IO stream (in this case a file). To iterate over the whole file a second time, you’ll need to reset it to point at the beginning of the stream. IO#rewind will do this for you:

file.each_line do |line|
  if line =~ /^\s*$/
    next
  end

  lines += 1
end

file.rewind

file.each_char do |char|
  if char =~ /\s/
    next
  end

  chars += 1
end