modes not working

[Anon]

im using a form to add content to a text file - then i have another page that retrieves the info from the text file and displays the info - my problem is this. if i use the a+ mode to add content it works, but the newest content is added to the bottom - but what i want to use is r+ so that it puts the pointer at the begginning - i do this so the newest content is first. but for some reason it just writes over the entire text file. so say i add the name "bob" - it writes "bob" to the text file. then i add "fred" - if im using the a+ mode then "fred" goes right under "bob" - but if i use r+ "fred" replaces "bob" and then only "fred" gets displayed - why????? - please help me?!?!

[[deleted]]

You cant insert data at the beginning of a file. Simply not possible.

What you need to do is read the entire file into memory (old data), then open the file for writing and write the new data to the file (overwriting the old datai in the file),
and then append the old data to the new file.

Or change your file layout so you can read the file onto an array. if you have the data in an array you can print the data in reverse. (you can also decide not to print all the data, or just the middle part, ever 2nd records, etc.)