A script that converts a TSV file into a YAML file. Take two parameters from command line: the name of input and output file(optional). Prints the output in the command-line if output filename is not provided.

tsv_to_yml.rb

require 'yaml'

data_filename = ARGV[0]
output_filename = ARGV[1]
new_data = []
header = ''

def create_record(headers, line)
  values = line.split("\t").map!(&:chomp)
  headers = headers.split("\t").map!(&:chomp)

  new_record = {}
  headers.size.times { |index| new_record[headers[index]] = values[index] }

  new_record
end

tsv_file = File.open(data_filename, 'r')

tsv_file.each_line.with_index do |line, index|
  header = line if index.zero?
  new_data.push(create_record(header, line)) unless index.zero?
end

tsv_file.close

if output_filename
  File.open(output_filename, 'w') { |file| file.puts new_data.to_yaml }
end

print new_data.to_yaml unless output_filename