Newbie Question - How to import arrays from textfile

[scythetleppo]

I am new thanks for the help.

I have a text file set up like this:
word1a<tab>word 2a<tab>word3a<t ab>word4a
word1b<tab>word 2b<tab>word3b<t ab>word4b
word1c<tab>word 2c<tab>word3c<t ab>word4c

I want a php program that compares a date and removes a line if the date is past.

Please don't say to use cron or just throw a function at me, I really am super new =]

The problem I am having already is that I can't seem to assign the values into an array that has them all and remembers them. If I could get it to work, it would look like:

whatever.array would be word1a, word2a, word3a, word4a but it would have all the lines like that....

And then I would work on the date but I can't even get the array to work.

Let me show you what I have, which I basically just copied from a book.

[php]
$values=array(6 ); // 6 different fields in the text file
$arrays=array(1 00); //I have no idea how to really do arrays so I just guessed
$fp = fopen("test.txt ", "r"); //open test.txt to read
$firstline = fgets($fp); //do nothing with the first line for now
print $firstline . "<br /><br />"; //print the first line (debug really)

while (!feof($fp)){ //while not end of file
$i += 1; //increment for array position (again no idea if this is right)
$line = fgets($fp); //read from file
$values = split(" ", $line); //tab-deliminated
$arrays[$i] = $values; //is this right?
print "Show #" . $i . ": <br /> " . $line . "<br />"; //debug print
}//end while

print "<br/><br/><br/>" . "values[0]: " . $values[0] . "values[1]: " . $values[1] . " values[2]: " . $values[2] . " values[3]: " . $values[3] . " values[4]: " . $values[4] . " values[5]: " . $values[5] . " values[6]: " . $values[6] . "<br /><br /><br />" . $arrays; //this is just a test debug print
fclose($fp); //close test.txt
[/php]

The problem is it reads the line into the array, then replaces it with the next line...I think... I am so damn lost help me !! =]

[Banfa]

I think your code is fairly correct but you are missing a

$i = 0;

just before the while loop, without it

$i += 1;

is a bit meaning less.

You could post your output it might help;

This line is not necessary
$values=array(6 ); // 6 different fields in the text file

This line
$arrays=array(1 00);

should be

$arrays=array() ;

I would do it like this

[php]
$arrays = file("test.txt" ); /* file reads an entire file into an array of lines */

foreach($arrays as $key => $line) /* foreach loops through all items in an array */
{
if ( $key == 0 )
{
print $line . "<br /><br />"
}
else
{
$arrays[$key] = split(" ", $line);
print "Show #" . $key . ": <br /> " . $line . "<br />"; //debug print
}
}//end foreach
[/php]

[scythetleppo]

ahhh SO cool thanks! I have a question.

I have gotten this:

--total entries--

Show #1:
1. (date1) (ages1) (location1) (price1) (comments1)
Show #2:
2. (date2) (ages2) (location2) (price2) (comments2)

as output (the content of test.txt).

I want to know how to get the value of the date?

I want to compare the date with the current date and delete the whole record if the date is before today's current date.


How would I go about that?

Thanks again!


EDIT: Also, just so you know, these fields will of course have real data in them, I just have those laid out to figure out where I was within the arrays.

[Banfa]

You can use the date functions provided by php to help you

int strtotime ( string time [, int now] ) - converts a date in string format to a unix timestamp

int time ( void ) - returns the unix timestamp for right now

int mktime ( [int hour [, int minute [, int second [, int month [, int day [, int year [, int is_dst]]]]]]] ) returns the unix timestamp for a specific time and date

Since unix timestamps are just the number of seconds past the Unix Epoch (January 1 1970 00:00:00 GMT) they can be easily compared using the normal comparison operators (i.e. < > == <= >= != etc)

[scythetleppo]

I'm really sorry, I have no idea how to use that to do what I need. I see that it changes the date to a number.

Can I just do....

[php]
<?
$firstDate = "03/16/06";
$secondDate = "03/17/06";

if(strtotime($f irstDate) - strtotime($seco ndDate) >= 0){ //if the difference is positive

print "second date is AFTER first.";

}else{

print "first date is AFTER second.";

}
?>
[/php]
is that how it goes???


also, how do I specify the 2nd value in each row of an array?

[Banfa]

I'm really sorry, I have no idea how to use that to do what I need. I see that it changes the date to a number.

Can I just do....

[php]
<?
$firstDate = "03/16/06";
$secondDate = "03/17/06";

if(strtotime($f irstDate) - strtotime($seco ndDate) >= 0){ //if the difference is positive

print "second date is AFTER first.";

}else{

print "first date is AFTER second.";

}
?>
[/php]
is that how it goes???

Yes you can that is exactly right, see so you do have an idea stop putting yourself down :D

Note your comment is not quite accurate it should say

// if the difference is positive or zero

and the printed text should say

second date is AFTER or EXACLTY THE SAME AS first

note also you need not do the arithmatic you could just compare the results

[php]
<?
$firstDate = "03/16/06";
$secondDate = "03/17/06";

if(strtotime($f irstDate) <= strtotime($seco ndDate) ){ //if the difference is positive

print "second date is AFTER first.";

}else{

print "first date is AFTER second.";

}
?>
[/php]


and to test against now

[php]
<?
$testDate = "03/22/06";

if(strtotime($t estDate) <= time() ){

print "test date is in the past or RIGHT NOW!!.";

}else{

print "test date has not happened yet";

}
?>
[/php]

also, how do I specify the 2nd value in each row of an array?

I assume you mean the value stated as ages. Since you have not said what this field actually is it is hard for me to answer you.

[scythetleppo]

yeah that's working nicely thanks!

what I'm trying to do is get the second value from the array record, then compare it to the date and delete the whole record from the file if it's past that date.

like this:



text file:
useless line here.
1 03/18/06 text moretext text blah blah text
2 05/14/04 text moretext text blah blah text
3 09/16/02 text moretext text blah blah text
4 11/15/07 text moretext text blah blah text


the program reads the different dates and sees that the 2 middle dates have passed so it rewrites the file to be:

useless line here.
1 03/18/06 text moretext text blah blah text
2 11/15/07 text moretext text blah blah text


How should I approach this? should I just use a database, even though there will never be more than, say, 20 records? If so, please help =]

EDIT: Also, how can I do the comparison you have showed me, but to check vs tomorrow?

In other words, I want to keep the record until the day *after* the date it has.

[scythetleppo]

bump bump bump

[Banfa]

Sorry I've been a bit ill so haven't logged on for a couple of days.

I think you have all the information you need it's just a matter of putting it together (I probably would use a database for such a small amount of data, although I might consider using a directory with a file for each record any on with the approach that you already have).

I will assume that you can work out the reading and writing of files (but say if this is too much), I can not stress strongly enough that you seem to have grasped stuff and you may be able to work out for yourself a lot of what you are asking by looking in the PHP documentation. I would download it from www.php.net (I have the chm file).

Use the functions file and split as explained in my first post to this thread. Note if each record only consits of a maximum of 3 items, number date and text then you can use the optional 3 parameter to split to prevent youself getting mor than 3 items out of each record. This would be a problem if the text could contain the delimiter you are using for the first 2 items.

I have explained reading a file in a previous post here

testing against the day after a date is very easy, just use strtotime again (please look this function up in the help it does a lot)

so

[php]
$array = <Array of records from file with each element split into an array of items in the record>;

foreach( $array as $key => $record )
{
$recordTime = strtotime($arra y);
$recordTimePlus 1Day = strtotime("+1 day", $recordTime);
// You could just add 24 * 60 * 60 or the number of seconds in 1 day but this is safer

if ( $recordTimePlus 1Day < time() )
{
echo( "Record $key OUT OF DATE\n" );
}
else
{
echo( "Record $key CURRENT\n" );
}
}
[/php]

So putting that together with writing a file using fopen/fwrite/fclose you get something like

[php]
$arrays = file("test.txt" ); /* read the entire file into arrays */

fout = fopen("test.txt ", "w"); /* Open the file to write to it */

foreach($arrays as $key => $line) /* Loop through each line of the file*/
{
// Special handling for first line that is not actual data
if ( $key <= 0 )
{
fwrite( fout, $arrays[$key] );
}
else
{
$line = split(" ,", $line, 3); // Get record number and date

// Calculate the check time
$recordTime = strtotime($arra y);
$recordTimePlus 1Day = strtotime("+1 day", $recordTime);

// If we still want this record write it back to the file
if ( $recordTimePlus 1Day >= time() )
{
fwrite( fout, $arrays[$key] );
}
}
}//end foreach

fclose( fout);
[/php]

Remember, when testing code like this ALWAYS do it on a backup of your data file or back your datafile up first.