How to write a tab-delimited file when the tab-delimiter comes from a database?
I have a problem really phrasing this question so i try to give an example:
The following code works and creates the expected output: a delimited file where each column is separated by a "real" tab.
CSV.open(@targetfile, "wb", "\t") { |csv|
csv << ["row", "of", "CSV", " }
The following code does not produce the expected out.
CSV.open(@targetfile, "wb", @targetdelimiter) { |csv|
csv << ["row", "of", "CSV", "data"] }
@targetdelimiter in this case comes from the database and is actually the string '\t' (without the quotes) which can be configured by the user.
This code produces also a delimited output, but i can see the '\t' instead of a "real" tab character.
What can I do with the second code block to get the same result as the first codeblock given that the @targetdelimiter='\t' from the db?
Answer
Just gsub it and be done with it.
CSV.open(@targetfile, "wb", @targetdelimiter.gsub('\t',"\t")){ |csv|
csv << ["row", "of", "CSV", "data"] }