string - Extract first word from a line in a file using Ruby

How do I get the first word from each line? Thanks to help from someone on , I am working with the code below:

File.open("pastie.rb", "r") do |file|
  while (line = file.gets)
    next if (line[0,1] == " ")

    labwords = line.split.first
    print labwords.join(' ')
  end
end

It extracts the first word from each line, but it has problems with spaces. I need help adjusting it. I need to use the first method, but I don't know how to use it.

Answer

Consider this:

def first_words_from_file(file_name)
  lines = File.readlines(file_name).reject(&:empty?)
  lines.map do |line|
    line.split.first
  end
end

puts first_words_from_file('pastie.rb')