Parsing in Ruby (on Rails)

Question

I want to write a Rails app to assist me with my online Poker. I play on PokerStars, and there is text data available for each hand that is played. The format it comes in is this:

PokerStars Game #27457662450: Tournament #157033867, Freeroll  Hold'em No Limit - Level IV (50/100) - 2009/04/24 20:39:44 ET
Table '157033867 830' 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: DortheaV (7624 in chips) 
Seat 2: Currly234 (3016 in chips) 
Seat 3: paolilla (3086 in chips) 
Seat 4: triumph888 (1571 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 5: Minchausti (1185 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 6: madmike11847 (1195 in chips) is sitting out
Seat 7: alamodey (4038 in chips) 
Seat 8: whiskerbob (3365 in chips) 
Seat 9: SHpic76 (1115 in chips) is sitting out
DortheaV: posts the ante 10
Currly234: posts the ante 10
paolilla: posts the ante 10
triumph888: posts the ante 10
Minchausti: posts the ante 10
madmike11847: posts the ante 10
alamodey: posts the ante 10
whiskerbob: posts the ante 10
SHpic76: posts the ante 10
Currly234: posts small blind 50
paolilla: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to alamodey [8s Ks]
triumph888: folds 
Minchausti: folds 
madmike11847: folds 
alamodey: calls 100
whiskerbob: folds 
SHpic76: folds 
DortheaV: folds 
Currly234: calls 50
paolilla: checks 
*** FLOP *** [5c 4h 6d]
Currly234: checks 
paolilla: checks 
alamodey: bets 234
Currly234: folds 
paolilla: folds 
Uncalled bet (234) returned to alamodey
alamodey collected 390 from pot
alamodey: doesn't show hand 
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 390 | Rake 0 
Board [5c 4h 6d]
Seat 1: DortheaV (button) folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 2: Currly234 (small blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 3: paolilla (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 4: triumph888 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 5: Minchausti folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 6: madmike11847 folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 7: alamodey collected (390)
Seat 8: whiskerbob folded before Flop (didn't bet)
Seat 9: SHpic76 folded before Flop (didn't bet)

Are there any parsing libraries for Ruby or do I have to do this manually and hackily?

Answer 1

This sounds like a job for Regex!. I doubt using any library would make it any easier to parse, since it's a pretty custom format you'll just have to hack away at it.

Answer 2

You might want to look at Treetop, a Parsing Expression Grammar based parser generator for Ruby.

Answer 3

Ragel is very good to write a parser. E.g. the http parser of Mongrel is generated with ragel.

Answer 4

Also if you just want the data you should just check out PokerTracker. PokerTracker stores 100% of hand information and has a well-documented schema and an open PostgreSQL database.