Using Ruby to record tasks

Question

I started writing this program to get a better understanding of different aspects of Ruby. I tried to follow the ruby style guide here.

What it's supposed to do is take the exercises/tasks you give it, and record those tasks. It uses a record of those tasks to automatically create/update the header row of a .csv file for the month, and to automatically create a row for every day that information (repetitions of a given exercise) is inputted. I know this program may seem a little useless, after all, many of us own excel, and currently it just gets input from gets, but I was thinking I might do more with it in the future.

I wrote two versions:

Version one:

# Requires
require "date"
require "csv"

# Functions
def standardize(string)
  # 'Standardizes' strings so that "word word" becomes "Word-Word"
  new_string = ""
  string_parts = string.strip.split
  string_parts.each do |part|
    part.capitalize!
    new_string << part + "-"
  end
  return new_string[0..-2]
end

def ensure_file(file_path)
  # Checks if a file exists and creates it if it doesn't exist
  if !File.file?(file_path)
    file = File.new(file_path, "w")
    file.close
  end
end

def overwrite_csv(path, csv_table)
  # Overwrites a CSV file
  # Made this a function so I can change how I do it throughout the file
  # from one place
  CSV.open(path, "w") do |csv_file|
    csv_table.each { |row| csv_file << row }
  end
end

# Constants
KNOWN_EXERCISES = "known_exercises.txt"
MONTH_FILE = Date::MONTHNAMES[Date.today.month] + ".csv"

# Gets an array of known exercises
ensure_file(KNOWN_EXERCISES)
exercises = []
File.foreach(KNOWN_EXERCISES) do |exercise|
  exercise.strip!
  exercise != "" ? exercises << exercise.strip : nil
end

# Gets information from the user
print "Exercise: "
exercise = standardize(gets.strip)
print "Repetitions: "
reps = gets.strip

# Checks if the exercise is in the known exercises file, writes it in if not
if !exercises.include?(exercise)
  File.open(KNOWN_EXERCISES, "a") do |known_exercises|
    known_exercises.write("\n" + exercise)
  end
  exercises << exercise
end

# Creates/modifies the .CSV file if necessary
current_day = Date.today.month.to_s + "/" + Date.today.day.to_s
if !File.file?(MONTH_FILE)
  CSV.open(MONTH_FILE, "w") do |csv_file|
    header_row = ["Day"] + exercises
    csv_file << header_row
  end
end

# Writes any new exercises to the file on disk
records = CSV.read(MONTH_FILE, headers:true, return_headers:true, converters: :numeric)
if !records[0].include?(exercise)
  records[0] << exercise
  overwrite_csv(MONTH_FILE, records)
end

# Enters user inputted data into the records in memory to edit
records = CSV.read(MONTH_FILE, headers:true, return_headers:true, converters: :numeric)
exercise_col = records.headers.index(exercise)
if !records["Day"].include?(current_day)
  data = [current_day]
  data[exercise_col] = reps
  records << data
elsif records["Day"].include?(current_day)
  cur_day_row_i = records["Day"].index(current_day) # Index of the current day's row
  records[cur_day_row_i][exercise] = reps
end

# Overwrites file on disk with edits in memory
overwrite_csv(MONTH_FILE, records)

Version two:

# Requires
require "date"
require "csv"

# Classes
class CSVFile
  attr_accessor :path, :new_file
  alias new_file? new_file

  def initialize(path)
    @path = path
    @new_file = false

    # Creates file if necessary
    if !File.file?(@path)
      @new_file = true
      create_file(path)
    end

    yield(self) if block_given?
  end

  def overwrite_table(csv_table)
    # Overwrites a CSV file with data from a Table object
    CSV.open(@path, "w") do |csv_file|
      csv_table.each { |row| csv_file << row }
    end
  end

  def overwrite(csv)
    # Overwrites a CSV file with anything that can be appended to CSV.open
    CSV.open(@path, "w") do |csv_file|
      csv_file << csv
    end
  end

  def append(csv)
    # Overwrites the whole csv file to append a line
    records = CSV.read(@path, headers:true, return_headers:true)
    records << csv
    overwrite_table(records)
  end

  def read(**args)
    # CSV.read but without having to specify path
    CSV.read(@path, args)
  end

  alias << append

  def to_s
    CSV.read(@path).to_s
  end
end

# Functions
def create_file(file_path)
  # Creates a blank file at file_path
  file = File.new(file_path, "w")
  file.close
end

def standardize(string)
  # 'Standardizes' strings so that "word word" becomes "Word-Word"
  new_string = ""
  string_parts = string.strip.split
  string_parts.each do |part|
    part.capitalize!
    new_string << part + "-"
  end
  new_string[0..-2]
end

# Constants
KNOWN_EXERCISES = "known_exercises.txt"
RECORDS = Date::MONTHNAMES[Date.today.month] + ".csv"

# Creates exercises file if necessary
create_file(KNOWN_EXERCISES) if !File.file?(KNOWN_EXERCISES)

# Gets an array of known exercises
exercises = []
File.foreach(KNOWN_EXERCISES) do |exercise|
  exercise.strip!
  exercises << exercise if exercise != ""
end

# Gets information from the user
print "Exercise: "
exercise = standardize(gets.strip)
print "Repetitions: "
reps = gets.strip

# Checks if the exercise is in the known exercises file, writes it in if not
if !exercises.include?(exercise)
  File.open(KNOWN_EXERCISES, "a") do |known_exercises|
    known_exercises.write("\n" + exercise)
  end
  exercises << exercise
end

# Creates/modifies the .CSV file
current_day = Date.today.month.to_s + "/" + Date.today.day.to_s
CSVFile.new(RECORDS) do |csv_file|
  # Creates the header row if necessary
  if csv_file.new_file?
    header_row = ["Day"] + exercises
    csv_file << header_row
  end

  # Enters user inputted data into the records in memory to edit
  records = csv_file.read(headers:true, return_headers:true)

  # Edits the header row when necessary
  if !records[0].include?(exercise)
    records[0] << exercise
  end

  # Edits the other rows when necessary
  if !records["Day"].include?(current_day)
    exercise_col = records.headers.index(exercise)
    data = [current_day]
    data[exercise_col] = reps
    records << data
  elsif records["Day"].include?(current_day)
    cur_day_row_i = records["Day"].index(current_day) # Index of the current day's row
    records[cur_day_row_i][exercise] = reps
  end

  # Overwrites file on disk with edits in memory
  csv_file.overwrite_table(records)
end

So if you entered room cleaning for the exercise, and 1 for the reps on June 11, you would get a .csv file that looked like:

Day,Room-Cleaning
6/11,1

And the next month, automatically the header row would look like:

Day,Room-Cleaning

Without you having to tell the program that that is one of the tasks you want to add.

I have a slight background in Python, if that helps in explaining any mistakes I may have made.

Answer 1

Sorry I don't have time to review the full program, but here's a much simpler replacement for the standardize method. Note strip is a redundant if you're then going to be splitting on white space:

def standardize(string)
  # 'Standardizes' strings so that "word word" becomes "Word-Word"
  string.split.map(&:capitalize).join('-')
end