On 4-Nov-06, at 10:51 AM, Kevin Stolt wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am new to ruby and I have been search and pulling my hair to do this
> using .scan?
>
> I have file which contains.....(this is an example)
>
> bat rat cat mat pat
> mat sat put tomorrow today
>
>
> So how could I search so I could get the values in the second column?
>
> I want to find "rat" and "sat" for example. I searched many time and
> read many things but I can't figure out. I hope someone would be kind
> enough to help me or show me the correct direction.
>
> any help is appreciated.

You might want to look at String#split, e.g.

 >> "bat rat cat mat pat".split(' ', 3)
=> ["bat", "rat", "cat mat pat"]

and pull out the second element, or you could use a regular expression

 >> "bat rat cat mat pat".match(/\s(\S+)\s/)[1]
=> "rat"

These are just suggestions, and if you care about efficiency and  
robustness then you should understand them and see if they offer any  
good starting points.

Hope this helps,

Mike

-- 

Mike Stok <mike / stok.ca>
http://www.stok.ca/~mike/

The "`Stok' disclaimers" apply.