Create an array from each line of a file in Ruby Rake - arrays

Question

I would like to create an array in Ruby rake called ARRAY where each line of an infile ("infile.txt") is an element of the array.
This is how I have tried it so far:
desc "Create new array"
task :new_array do
ARRAY=Array.new
end
desc "Add elements to array"
task :add_elements => [:new_array] do
File.open("infile.txt").each do |line|
ARRAY.push(#{line})
end
end
However, I get the following error:
syntax error, unexpected keyword_end, expecting ')'
for the end after "ARRAY.push(#{line})"
Can someone explain to me what the problem is or let me know of another way to do this?
Many thanks!

Answer 1

Your problem is that you're trying to use string interpolation (#{...}) outside a string:
ARRAY.push(#{line})
# ---------^^^^^^^
You could use string interpolation by throwing in some double quotes:
ARRAY.push("#{line}")
but there's no need to convert a string (line) to an identical string ("#{line}") so you could just push straight onto the array:
ARRAY.push(line)
Or you could just skip all that explicit iteration and use #to_a:
array = File.open("infile.txt").to_a
And if you wanted to strip off the newlines:
array = File.open('infile.txt').map(&:chomp)
As engineersmnky points out in the comments, using File.readlines would be a better approach:
array = File.readlines('infile.txt')
array = File.readlines('infile.txt').map(&:chomp)
#...
And don't forget to check IO as well as File for methods when working with files.

Answer 2

You can also do this:
array = []
IO.foreach("path/to/file.txt") { |line|
array.push(line.chomp)
}
Then if you want to clear the array from empty lines just use delete:
array.delete("")