Question

task('google:rankings' => :environment) do
  def find_item uri, query
    search = Google::Search::Web.new do |search|
      search.query = query
      search.size = :large
      search.each_response { print '.'; $stdout.flush }
    end
    search.find { |item| item.uri.downcase.include?(uri.downcase) }
  end

  def rank_for query, domain
    print "%35s " % query
    if item = find_item(domain, query)
      puts " #%d" % (item.index + 1)
    else
      puts " Not found"
    end
  end

  Campaign.all.each do |campaign|
    campaign.keywords.each do |keyword|
      rank_for keyword.set, Domain.find(campaign.domain_id).name if (keyword.set)
    end
  end
end

This tidbit is inside of a rake task. When the rake task run the console window updates in real-time like so:

keyword .

keyword …

keyword ….. not found

I’m not exactly clear about what’s going on with #%d? How is it making the printing of the dot happen multiple times?

Answer 1

The dots are not being printed by line 4 (or any line) of rank_for. They’re being printed by the block passed to search.each_response several lines earlier.

In #%d, the # is just a # and the %d is a C-ish format code meaning “interpolate an integer value here”.