array problem, help!

[Anon]

Hi all...

If I use this script...

<?php
// get a web page into an array and print it out
$fcontents = file ('something.txt');
while (list ($line_num, $line) = each ($fcontents)) {
echo "<b>Line $line_num:</b> " . htmlspecialchars ($line) . "<br>\n";
}

// get a web page into a string
$fcontents = join ('', file ('something.txt'));

?>

...to get all the lines in a textfile into an array, how do I tell display only the first five lines of the file? Or perhaps just line 3? Something specific.

Thanks in advance for any help available- this place is great when you're learning!

Andy, UK.

[Anon]

You to display an arbitrary number of lines from an array, you just need to define that number and then loop through to that number.

$fcontents = file("something.txt");
$display_num_lines = 5;
$actual_num_lines = sizeof($fcontents);

for ($i = 0; $i < $display_num_lines && $i < $actual_num_lines; $i++) {

echo "Line $i: " . htmlspecialchars ($fcontents[$i]) . "<br>\n";

}

You use the for loop to run through the array, which when broken down, does the following:

$i = 0; // Obviously sets i to 0.
$i < $display_num_lines // keep looping through while until we have displayed the number of lines requested
&& $i < $actual_num_lines // This makes sure that we don't overrun our bounds (doesn't really matter in php, but you could get a bunch of nothing if you don't)..

And then you echo it out like you want, but the line number is $i and the actual line is $fcontents[$i]. Hope that helps!

Chris King