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How to parse tab separated values, values of which may be omitted and they should be recognized as nil—that was discussed at ruby-list.

For instance each row has three values: float, integer and string; “1\t2\t3” should be 1.0, 2, “3”. When values are omitted they should be parsed as nil, not zero nor empty string; “1\t\t3” should be 1.0, nil, “3”.

Following is a solution of Rubikichi-san¹.

class TextData < Struct.new(:float, :int, :str)
  CONVERTER = [:to_f, :to_i, :to_s]
  def self.[](input)
    obj = new
    input.chomp.split(/\t/).each_with_index do |x, i|
      obj[i] = (x && x.__send__(CONVERTER[i]))
    end
    obj
  end
end

p TextData["1\t2\t3"]
p TextData["1.0\t2\t"] 
p TextData["1\t2\tfoo"] 

# 
# 
# 

Inherit an anonymous structure class!

¹ He is a pioneer of Ruby. I learned Ruby techniques from his book and home page. “Rubikichi” is his alias.

There is extra functionality in the original question, which I skip here; converting the string value is required.