ruby placeholders NOT populating in external .txt file - ruby

Question

Here is what I currently have; the only problem being the external file loads without the placeholder text updated -- instead rather, the placeholder text just says '[NOUN]' instead of actual noun inserted from user in earlier program prompt.
Update; cleaned up with #tadmans suggestions, it is however, still not passing user input to placeholder text in external .txt file.
puts "\n\nOnce upon a time on the internet... \n\n"
puts "Name 1 website:"
print "1. "
loc=gets
puts "\n\Write 5 adjectives: "
print "1. "
adj1=gets
print "\n2. "
adj2=gets
print "\n3. "
adj3=gets
print "\n4. "
adj4=gets
print "\n5. "
adj5=gets
puts "\n\Write 2 nouns: "
print "1. "
noun1=gets
print "\n2. "
noun2=gets
puts "\n\nWrite 1 verb: "
print "1. "
verb=gets
puts "\n\nWrite 1 adverb: "
print "1. "
ptverb=gets
string_story = File.read("dynamicstory.txt")
puts string_story
Currently output is (i.e. placeholders not populated):
\n\nOnce upon a time on the internet...\n\n
One dreary evening while browsing the #{loc} website online, I stumbled accross a #{adj1} Frog creature named Earl. This frog would sit perturbed for hours at a time at the corner of my screen like Malware. One day, the frog appeared with a #{adj2} companion named Waldo that sat on the other corner of my screen. He had a #{adj3} set of ears with sharp #{noun1} inside. As the internet frogs began conversing and becoming close friends in hopes of #{noun2}, they eventually created a generic start-up together. They knew their start-up was #{adj4} but didn't seem to care and pushed through anyway. They would #{verb} on the beach with each other in the evenings after operating with shady ethics by day. They could only dream of a shiny and #{adj5} future full of gold. But then they eventually #{ptverb} and moved to Canada.\n\n
The End\n\n\n

Answer 1

It's important to note that the Ruby string interpolation syntax is only valid within actual Ruby code, and it does not apply in external files. Those are just plain strings.
If you want to do rough interpolation on those you'll need to restructure your program in order to make it easy to do. The last thing you want is to have to eval that string.
When writing code, always think about breaking up your program into methods or functions that have a specific function and can be used in a variety of situations. Ruby generally encourages code-reuse and promoting the "DRY principle", or "Don't Repeat Yourself".
For example, your input method boils down to this generic method:
def input(thing, count = 1)
puts "Name %d %s:" % [ count, thing ]
count.times.map do |i|
print '%d. ' % (i + 1)
gets.chomp
end
end
Where that gets input for a random thing with an arbitrary count. I'm using sprintf-style formatters here with % but you're free to use regular interpolation if that's how you like it. I just find it leads to a less cluttered string, especially when interpolating complicated chunks of code.
Next you need to organize that data into a proper container so you can access it programmatically. Using a bunch of unrelated variables is problematic. Using a Hash here makes it easy:
puts "\n\nOnce upon a time on the internet... \n\n"
words = { }
words[:website] = input('website')
words[:adjective] = input('adjectives', 5)
words[:noun] = input('nouns', 2)
words[:verb] = input('verb')
words[:adverb] = input('adverb')
Notice how you can now alter the order of these things by re-ordering the lines of code, and you can change how many of something you ask for by adjusting a single number, very easy.
The next thing to fix is your interpolation problem. Instead of using Ruby notation #{...}, which is hard to evaluate, go with something simple. In this case %verb1 and %noun2 are used:
def interpolate(string, values)
string.gsub(/\%(website|adjective|noun|verb|adverb)(\d+)/) do
values.dig($1.to_sym, $2.to_i - 1)
end
end
That looks a bit ugly, but the regular expression is used to identify those tags and $1 and $2 pull out the two parts, word and number, separately, based on the capturing done in the regular expression. This might look a bit advanced, but if you take the time to understand this method you can very quickly solve fairly complicated problems with little fuss. It's something you'll use in a lot of situations when parsing or rewriting strings.
Here's a quick way to test it:
string_story = File.read("dynamicstory.txt")
puts interpolate(string_story, words)
Where the content of your file looks like:
One dreary evening while browsing the %website1 website online,
I stumbled accross a %adjective1 Frog creature named Earl.
You could also adjust your interpolate method to pick random words.