Simple Ruby script to demonstrate using Ruby bindings to access gdal's API. Source: http://groups.open.org.nz/groups/geomash/messages/topic/1cM3o6EkTv0sjbeG460Qfw

shapefiles_demo.rb

# Simple Ruby script to demonstrate using Ruby bindings to access gdal's API
#
# Author: andrewfa
# Date: Mar 19, 2012
# Source: http://groups.open.org.nz/groups/geomash/messages/topic/1cM3o6EkTv0sjbeG460Qfw

require 'rubygems'
require 'gdal-ruby/ogr'

filename = './nz-primary-road-parcels.shp'

dataset = Gdal::Ogr.open(filename)
number_of_layers = dataset.get_layer_count
print "Number of Layers : #{number_of_layers}\n"
number_of_layers.times do |layer_index|

  layer = dataset.get_layer(layer_index)
  print "Feature Count : #{layer.get_feature_count}\n"
  layer.get_feature_count.times do |feature_index|

    feature = layer.get_feature(feature_index)
    print "Feature  - #{feature_index}\n"
    geoms = feature.get_geometry_ref()
    # get number of geometries
    geoms.get_geometry_count.times do |geometry_index|

      geom = geoms.get_geometry_ref(geometry_index)
      geom.get_point_count.times do |point_index|

        x = geom.get_x(point_index)
        y = geom.get_y(point_index)
        z = geom.get_z(point_index)
        print "X: #{x}, Y: #{y}, Z: #{z}\n"
      end
    end
  end
end