fullname = favouritefruit = "" needspeeling = seedsremoved = false otherfamily = [] IO.foreach("config.file") do |line| line.chomp! key, value = line.split(nil, 2) case key when /^([#;]|$)/; # ignore line when "FULLNAME"; fullname = value when "FAVOURITEFRUIT"; favouritefruit = value when "NEEDSPEELING"; needspeeling = true when "SEEDSREMOVED"; seedsremoved = true when "OTHERFAMILY"; otherfamily = value.split(",").map(&:strip) when /^./; puts "#{key}: unknown key" end end puts "fullname = #{fullname}" puts "favouritefruit = #{favouritefruit}" puts "needspeeling = #{needspeeling}" puts "seedsremoved = #{seedsremoved}" otherfamily.each_with_index do |name, i| puts "otherfamily(#{i+1}) = #{name}" end