Checking for null lines in txt file.

[Anon]

I have a list box function that I built in PHP 4. It reads the list box entries from a text file and builds the list box selections based upon that. This way, no coding changes are necessary if the list ever changes -- only the text file need be modified.

This all works fine until I get to the end of the text file. I cannot seem to get the function to ignore null lines. I've tried trapping for "", "\r", "\n", "\r\n" but nothing seems to work. It reads the line anyway and screws up the end of the list by putting a blank entry in the list box. The only fix I have found so far is to make sure that the text file does not contain a CR after the last entry.

This should be an elementary string parsing issue, but it's got me stumped.

Any suggestions anyone?

[kparker]

Perhaps you could show us the code that reads the text file?

[thepriest]

Its better to load the file with file('filename');
This function sucks down the text file 'filename' and spits it out into an array, 1 element for each line.

then loop for each element in the returned array

[danwatt]

It is possible to do this with a regexp. Im only familiar with the ereg syntax, but this should do it

$text=ereg_replace("\n[\r\n]+\n","\n",$text);

I didnt test that code, but it should be something like that. Basically, all you have to do is test for two consecutive newlins with empty space between them, then clear it all out to 1 newline. Please let me know if the above doesnt work. Its 3 am and im running on empty.

[Anon]

Try calling trim() on the line and then check for != ""