Question

Ok what I need is a little weird and goes as follows:

Clues array is created manually, Data array is created dynamically. An Xpath function takes our clues as input and maps the results to data to create a dynamic array

clues = Array.new

clues << 'Power supply type'    
clues << 'Slots'
clues << 'Software included'

selector = "//td[text()='%s']/following-sibling::td"

data = Array.new
data = clues.map do |clue| 
         xpath = selector % clue
         [clue, doc.at(xpath).text.strip]
       end

The code in the data array uses two inputs, clues and selector
every item at clues[index] goes into selector at %s to become

//td[text()='%s']/following-sibling::td  
//td[text()='Power supply type']/following-sibling::td
//td[text()='Slots']/following-sibling::td
//td[text()='Software included']/following-sibling::td

Xpath then goes off and grabs information from a webpage using our stored commands, all of this is then stored as elements in the array data as data[0]…data[3]

Data[2] looks like this, a big chunk of information

Symantec Norton Internet Security (60 days live update); Recovery partition (inc
luding possibility to recover system; applications and drivers separately); Opti
onal re-allocation of recovery partition;

I want to take each piece of software listed here and store it on its own e.g.

data[2]Symantec Norton Internet Security (60 days live update); 
data[3]Recovery partition (including possibility to recover system; 
data[4]Optional re-allocation of recovery partition;

So I assume I need to split data[2] somehow and add it back into the data array?

I am trying to isolate this particular index as I need it on multiple lines for my final output to spreadsheet

Final Desired output

Answer 1

data = Array.new
clues.each do |clue|
  xpath = selector % clue
  text = doc.at(xpath).text.strip
  if clue == 'Software included'
    values = text.scan(/.+?;/)
    values << text if values.empty? # text did not contain a semicolon
    data << [clue, values.shift.strip]
    values.each do |value|
      data << ['', value.strip]
    end
  else
    data << [clue, text]
  end
end

Output (indented to be more readable):

[
  ["Power supply type", "400w"],
  ["Slots", "2"],
  ["Software included", "Symantec Norton Internet Security (60 days live update);"],
  ["", "Recovery partition (including possibility to recover system;"],
  ["", "applications and drivers separately);"],
  ["", "Optional re-allocation of recovery partition;"]
]