array within an array ruby

Question

Input: <ArrayOfSMSIncomingMessage xmlns=\"http://sms2.cdyne.com\" xmlns:i=\"http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance\"><SMSIncomingMessage><FromPhoneNumber>19176230250</FromPhoneNumber><IncomingMessageID>cf8ef62d-9169-4908-a527-891fca056475</IncomingMessageID><MatchedMessageID>6838594b-288f-4e9a-863c-3ad9f4d501ca</MatchedMessageID><Message>This is a test</Message><ResponseReceiveDate>2013-04-07T17:19:06.953</ResponseReceiveDate><ToPhoneNumber>13146667368</ToPhoneNumber></SMSIncomingMessage><SMSIncomingMessage><FromPhoneNumber>19176230250</FromPhoneNumber><IncomingMessageID>ebf11b38-c176-439a-a2d0-7a2bb35390df</IncomingMessageID><MatchedMessageID>6838594b-288f-4e9a-863c-3ad9f4d501ca</MatchedMessageID><Message>Does it wotk</Message><ResponseReceiveDate>2013-04-07T17:19:17.303</ResponseReceiveDate><ToPhoneNumber>13146667368</ToPhoneNumber></SMSIncomingMessage></ArrayOfSMSIncomingMessage>
Expected Output:  [["191760250", "This is a test", "2013-04-07T17:19:06.953", "13146636 8"],["191760250", "Does it wotk", "2013-04-07T17:19:17.303", "131466368"]]

I am a newbie but i can't solve this problem or find an answer. The objective is to parse a text. The problem is that I put the information into an array b and then I put array b into array c. However, what happens is that c[0] becomes equal to c[1] even thought they should have different information. I don't know how to fix this.

data='"<ArrayOfSMSIncomingMessage xmlns=\"http://sms2.cdyne.com\" xmlns:i=\" <FromPhoneNumber>191760250</FromPhoneNumber>'
data=data+'<Message>This is a test</Message><ResponseReceiveDate>2013-04-07T17:19:06.953</ResponseReceiveDate>'
data=data+'<ToPhoneNumber>13146636 8</ToPhoneNumber></SMSIncomingMessage><SMSIncomingMessage><FromPhoneNumber>191760250'
data=data+'</FromPhoneNumber><Message>Does it wotk</Message><ResponseReceiveDate>2013-04-07T17:19:17.303</ResponseRecei'
data=data+'veDate><ToPhoneNumber>131466368</ToPhoneNumber></SMSIncomingMessage></ArrayOfSMSIncomingMessage>'
a=[['<FromPhoneNumber>','</FromPhoneNumber>'],['<Message>','</Message>'],
['<ResponseReceiveDate>','</ResponseReceiveDate>'],['<ToPhoneNumber>','</ToPhoneNumber>']]
b=[]
c=[]
d=true
ii=-1
while data.index(a[0][0])!=nil do
  ii+=1
  for i in 0..3
    print "\ni is #{i} first term: #{a[i][0]} second term #{a[i][1]}\n"
    b[i]= data[data.index(a[i][0])+a[i][0].length..data.index(a[i][1])-1]
    print "b[i] is #{b[i]}\n"
  end
  print "b is #{b}\n"
  print "c is #{c}\n"
  c.push(b)
  print "c is #{c}\n"
  d=data.slice!(0,data.index('</SMSIncomingMessage>')+5)
  print "d is #{d}\n"
  print "data is #{data}\n"
end

Answer 1

You are parsing XML. Don't waste time trying to manipulate strings, because all you'll do is generate fragile code.

Instead, use a real XML parser, which lets you navigate through the structure, and pick what you want.

First, your XML is malformed, but I worked around that by supplying a closing tag, turning it into damaged XML, but not fatally so.

require 'nokogiri'

xml = '<ArrayOfSMSIncomingMessage xmlns="http://sms2.cdyne.com" xmlns:i="">
  <SMSIncomingMessage>
    <FromPhoneNumber>191760250</FromPhoneNumber>
    <Message>This is a test</Message>
    <ResponseReceiveDate>2013-04-07T17:19:06.953</ResponseReceiveDate>
    <ToPhoneNumber>131466368</ToPhoneNumber>
  </SMSIncomingMessage>
  <SMSIncomingMessage>
    <FromPhoneNumber>191760250</FromPhoneNumber>
    <Message>Does it wotk</Message>
    <ResponseReceiveDate>2013-04-07T17:19:17.303</ResponseReceiveDate>
    <ToPhoneNumber>131466368</ToPhoneNumber>
  </SMSIncomingMessage>
</ArrayOfSMSIncomingMessage>'

doc = Nokogiri::XML(xml)

pp doc.search('SMSIncomingMessage').map{ |incoming_msg|
  %w[FromPhoneNumber Message ResponseReceiveDate ToPhoneNumber].map{ |n| incoming_msg.at(n).text }
}

Which outputs:

[["191760250", "This is a test", "2013-04-07T17:19:06.953", "131466368"],
["191760250", "Does it wotk", "2013-04-07T17:19:17.303", "131466368"]]

Answer 2

I really don't understand what your code is trying to accomplish, but regarding what you say isn't working as you expect, (However, what happens is that c[0] becomes equal to c[1] even thought they should have different information.), the issue is that you are pushing b (which is a reference) onto c, so when you change b, you get the appearance of the contents of c changing.

Change

c.push(b)

to

c.push(b.dup)

if you want what you push onto c to stay the same even after you change b.