Question

Looking to create a hash table from a text output that looks like this (whitespace between words are tabs):

GCOLLECTOR     123456     77889     uno  
BLOCK     unique111    error     fullunique111     ...     ...     ...  
DAY     ... ... ...  
LABEL     detail     unique111     Issue     Broken - The truck broke  
LABEL     detail     unique111     Folder    3c1  
LABEL     detail     unique111     Datum     bar_1666.9  
GCOLLECTOR     234567     77889     uno  
BLOCK     unique222    error     fullunique111     ...     ...     ...  
DAY     ... ... ...  
DAY     ... ... ...
LABEL     detail     unique222     Issue     Broken - The truck broke  
LABEL     detail     unique222     Datum     bar_9921.2
LABEL     detail     unique222     Folder    6a3  
GCOLLECTOR     345678     77889     uno  
BLOCK     unique333    error     fullunique111     ...     ...     ...    
LABEL     detail     unique333     Datum     bar_7766.2
LABEL     detail     unique333     Folder    49k  
LABEL     detail     unique333     Issue     Broken - The truck broke

I would like to create a hash table that assigns each of the following to the hash:
gcollectors = Hash.new
gcollectors = { "UniqueID" => uniqueXXX,
"Datum" => bar_XXXX.X,
"FullUniqueID" => fulluniqueXXX,
"IssueGroup" => Broken
}

The uniqueXXX fields always match for the BLOCK and associated LABELs.

I am having a couple issues:
1- How do I assign just those fields to the hashes?
2- How can I split the text prior to the hyphen (in LABEL … Issue) and assign it to IssueGroup?
3- How can this be done reliably when the order of the LABEL lines is different?
.. same question for when there are multiple DAY lines or no DAY lines.

Answer 1

This is how I’d go about it:

records     = [] # init an array to hold everything
gcollectors = {} # init the hash holding info for one record

# loop over the file
File.readlines('text.txt').each do |l|

  # split the line into columns
  columns = l.chomp.split("\t")

  # if the first column is...
  case columns[0]
  when 'GCOLLECTOR'
    # we don't care about the columns, but instead use this record to tell us to
    # store the hash and reinitialize it.
    if (gcollectors.any?)
      records << gcollectors
      gcollectors = {}
    end
  when 'BLOCK'
    gcollectors['UniqueID']     = columns[1]
    gcollectors['FullUniqueID'] = columns[3]
  when 'LABEL'
    # a LABEL record could have two different values we care about so figure out
    # which it is.
    case columns[3]
    when 'Datum'
      gcollectors['Datum'] = columns[4]
    when 'Issue'
      gcollectors['IssueGroup'] = columns[4].split('-').first.strip
    end
  end

  # get the next record
  next
end

require 'ap'
ap records
# >> [
# >>     [0] {
# >>             "UniqueID" => "unique111",
# >>         "FullUniqueID" => "fullunique111",
# >>           "IssueGroup" => "Broken",
# >>                "Datum" => "bar_1666.9"
# >>     },
# >>     [1] {
# >>             "UniqueID" => "unique222",
# >>         "FullUniqueID" => "fullunique111",
# >>           "IssueGroup" => "Broken",
# >>                "Datum" => "bar_9921.2"
# >>     }
# >> ]