Question

I have a simple YAML array with values like this

%YAML 1.1
---

-
  - 'd7744c3878'
  - '80705686'
-
  - 'c349b086b1'
  - '80705686'
-
  - '516e25d139'
  - '95203563'

I try the following code to iterate on them and add them to the database.

YAML.load_file("db/tokens.yml").each_value do |yml_token|

    token = Token.find_or_create_by_token_origin(
           token_origin: yml_token[0],
           token_value: yml_token[1]) 

end

But I get a NoMethodError: undefined method each_value for #<String:0x000000059ab7f8>
error when try to run the code.

Any idea what is causing this?

UPDATE:

Using Psych.load as suggested below I also get a SyntaxError: db/gallery_tokens.yml:1: unknown type of %string
%YAML 1.1 error.

require "psych"
Psych.load("db/tokens.yml").each do |yml_token|

    token = Token.find_or_create_by_token_origin(
           token_origin: yml_token[0],
           token_value: yml_token[1]) 

end

Answer 1

It’s likely that the declaration at the top, “%YAML 1.1”, is causing problems.

No error:

require "yaml"
YAML.load("---\n\n-\n  - 'd7744c3878'\n  - '80705686'").each
=> #<Enumerator: [["d7744c3878", "80705686"]]:each>

Error:

YAML.load("%YAML 1.1\n---\n\n-\n  - 'd7744c3878'\n  - '80705686'").each
NoMethodError: undefined method `each' for "%YAML 1.1 ---\n- - 'd7744c3878' - '80705686'":String
        from (irb):4
        from /Users/modify/.rvm/rubies/ruby-1.9.2-p180/bin/irb:17:in `<main>'

Here I’m using ruby 1.9.2p180 (2011-02-18 revision 30909) [i386-darwin9.8.0]. I also note that in an unmodified environment, #each_value is available for a Hash but not an Array (@oldergod).

It looks like Psych, which is the default YAML interepreter in later versions of Ruby, can handle the %YAML 1.1 directive:

require "psych"
Psych.load("%YAML 1.1\n---\n\n-\n  - 'd7744c3878'\n  - '80705686'").each
=> #<Enumerator: [["d7744c3878", "80705686"]]:each> 

Possible alternatives to using Psych directly would be to switch to a later version of Ruby or to strip the %YAML 1.1 header from the file.