Convert data table string into usable form

gistfile1.scala

  /**
   * Convert a dataTable string representation into a List of Maps. For example:
   *
   *   | x | y      |
   *   | 1 | a is   |
   *   | 2 | b does |
   *
   * Becomes:
   *
   *   List(Map(x -> 1, y -> "a is"), Map(x -> 2, y -> "b does"))
   */
  def tableFromString(data: String): List[Map[String, String]] = {
    def trimEach(seq: Array[String]): Array[String] = seq map { _.trim }

    val lines = data split("\n") map { _.trim } map { _.drop(1) } map { _.dropRight(1) }
      // split into lines, then for each remove surrounding whitespace and '|' chars

    val cellsByLine = lines map { _.split('|') } map trimEach
    val headerCells = cellsByLine.head
    val rowCells = cellsByLine.tail

    rowCells.toList map { row => headerCells.zip(row).toMap }
  }

UPDATE: this now handles whitespace correctly so the previous comment can be ignored.