[tiff88]

Hi all,

another question from me ;-). I want to use the explode function to separate a text file that I read into a string, into an array. So, looking at the little example text file right below:

Bubba, Comps, 12/23/1984
Ahmed, Allthat, 04/12/1979

If i take the above text file and run the following code on it

$filename = "data.txt";
$fp = fopen($filename, "r" ) or die("Could not open file");
$contents = file_get_contents($filename);
fclose($file);
$delimiter = ",";
$splitcontents = explode($delimiter, $contents);
$counter = "";
print $splitcontents[2];

So, once I get to splitcontents[2] i get the following printout

12/23/1984 Ahmed

I want the birthdate and the name separate. My question is, can I include an additional delimiter, or how do I get it working so all first names, last names, and birth dates are in separate array slots. Thanks again for all the help and advice.

[Valek]

Well, since you're using a comma as the delimiter, you could add a comma at the end of every line, then use ltrim() if you get whitespace at the start of some of your results.

That's the easy answer though. If you absolutely cannot do that, post so and I'll let you know the harder way to do it.

[William_Wilson]

you either need to put a , on the end of lines, or split on \n too. New lines are not handled when exploding on , only.

[ericr2427]

In the text file try removing the spaces after the commas, or setting the delimeter to ", "
Probably won't work considering I've never used that function...

[tiff88]

Thanks for all the advice.
I ended up doing it like this

$fp = fopen($filename, "r" ) or die("Could not open file");
			 while ( !feof( $fp)){
				$line = fgets( $fp, 255 );
				$line = chop( $line );
				$field = split( ",", $line, 3 );
				echo $field[0];
				echo $field[1];
				echo $field[2];
				echo "<br>";
			}

Now, how would i put this data into an html table. Can i just mix html in and use the php variable names in the html part?

[tiff88]

for example,
would something like this work

 echo <a href ="$field[2]"website link</a>";

[William_Wilson]

you would need to have proper html format
echo "<a href='".$field[2]."'>link</a>";
or
?><a href="<?php echo $field[2]; ?>">link</a><?php
swapping in and out of php.
A similar approach can be used for tables.

[ericr2427]

Never mind, can't compete with Wilson

This post has been edited by ericr2427: 03 December 2008 - 07:35 PM

[Valek]

foreach($field as $key => $val) {
  echo "<a href='link here'>{$val}</a><br />\r\n";
}

The code above would work if you wanted a list of links straight down (judging by the example you posted) with the text on the links equivalent to the value of each entry in $field.

And as William_Wilson said above, a similar approach can be used with tables.

This post has been edited by Valek: 03 December 2008 - 07:42 PM

[CTphpnwb]

Beating a dead horse:

You can read the entire file in one shot, assuming it isn't so large that you'll run out of memory.

<?php
$mytemp = readmyfile("Thefile.txt");
$mytext = str_replace("\n",",",$mytemp);
$myarray = explode (",",$mytext);

var_dump($myarray);

function readmyfile($thefile)
		{	
		$myfile=fopen($thefile,"r");
		$x = fread($myfile, filesize($thefile));
		fclose($myfile);
		return $x;
		}
?>

[vipulpatel]

Well, You try space as delimeter and then fetch the 0 position in array. you will get solution.