xml.rb

#! /usr/bin/ruby
# in response to ruby-talk email of 2010-01-12 from Anandh Kumar

xml = <<EOX
<root>
     <row>
        <column>Business Strategy</column>
        <column>bus1</column>
     </row>
     <row>
        <column>Company Description</column>
        <column>tar1</column>
     </row>
     <row>
         <column>Business Strategy</column>
         <column>bus2</column>
     </row>
     <row>
         <column>Company Description</column>
         <column>tar2</column>
     </row>
     <row>
        <column>Business Strategy</column>
        <column>bus3</column>
     </row>
     <row>
        <column>Company Description</column>
        <column>tar3</column>
     </row>
</root>
EOX

require 'rubygems'
require 'nokogiri'

doc = Nokogiri::XML xml

business_nodes = doc.xpath("/root/row/column[text()='Business Strategy']/following-sibling::*")
company_nodes  = doc.xpath("/root/row/column[text()='Company Description']/following-sibling::*")

new_doc = Nokogiri::XML::Builder.new do
  root do
    row do
      column "Business Strategy"
      business_nodes.each { |node| column node.content }
    end
    row do
      column "Company Description"
      company_nodes.each { |node| column node.content }
    end
  end
end

puts new_doc.to_xml
# <?xml version="1.0"?>
# <root>
#   <row>
#     <column>Business Strategy</column>
#     <column>bus1</column>
#     <column>bus2</column>
#     <column>bus3</column>
#   </row>
#   <row>
#     <column>Company Description</column>
#     <column>tar1</column>
#     <column>tar2</column>
#     <column>tar3</column>
#   </row>
# </root>

I wonder the columns like "Business Strategy" and "Company Description" also can be detected.
How about that idea?

If you've got questions about how to use Nokogiri, please communicate via the mailing list. Thanks!

Thanks for comment.