Showing how I would handle some data by using yaml instead of an ad hoc format.

readme

A response for http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/866786

Just showing how to use a real data format rather than try to create one on the fly, which is fragile and error prone. 

Here is a link to yaml docs: http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/yaml/rdoc/index.html

data.yml

--- 
- :category: cat1
  :items: 
  - item1
  - item2
  - item3
- :category: cat2
  :items: 
  - item1
- :category: cat3
  :items: 
  - item1
  - item2
  - item3
  - item4

from_yaml.rb

require 'yaml'
require 'pp'

data = File.open 'data.yml' do |file|
  YAML.load file
end

pp data

to_yaml.rb

# this code will get you started so you can see what the data should look like
require 'yaml'

# I'm storing it in an Array, because Hashes are unordered pre 1.9
data = [
  { :category => 'cat1' , :items => ['item1', 'item2', 'item3']           },
  { :category => 'cat2' , :items => ['item1']                             },
  { :category => 'cat3' , :items => ['item1', 'item2', 'item3', 'item4']  },
]

File.open 'data.yml' , 'w' do |file|
  file.puts YAML.dump(data)
end