transforming string data

[Anon]

Hi folks,

Problem: I have a text-based data file that contains variable name:value label sequences like this:

age:18
name:Chuck U. Farley

I am trying to convert this file from the above form to tab-delimited like this:
age:18<TAB>name:Chuck U. Farley

Using either str_replace or ereg_replace I have been able to transform the file so that all the spaces and/or returns (/r/n) are taken out

$string = str_replace("\r\n", " ", $string);
echo $string;

However, I can't figure out how to replace the spaces with tabs.

Any suggestions would be very welcome.

[[deleted]]

A tab is represented by \t, so just replace the \r\n with \t.

Don't replace them with a space first.

[Anon]

Hi,

Indeed, I tried that. But when I echo it back the hard returns and lines are deleted and replaced by a space. Sometimes when i have replaced /r/n/ wit /t I have got back an actual /t in the space where a tab should be???

Thanks for your suggestion though.

[Anon]

Here is the code:

<?PHP

$fp = fopen("FireS.txt", "r+");

 if(!$fp) die ("The file is not there stupid");

$data = fread($fp, 122000000);

$change = ereg_replace("\r\n", "\t", $data);

$change2 = ereg_replace("\\", "", $change);

echo $change2;

fclose($fp);

?>

[[deleted]]

WHy do you have the second replace in there?

[Anon]

In order to get rid of some \ characters that appeared within the form results. I also figured out that the reason the tab characters were not showing up was because tabs are not shown in HTML and the echo command feeds back the results of the PHP transformation as an HTML-based output file.

I think that I have it figured out. In the future i will have to remember to use the ereg_replace code in the form for open-ended response questions (i.e. string responses) so that I can strip out the hard returns and tabs at the front end instead of the back end.

I have altered the code and it seems to run fine like this:

//Open the file
$fp = fopen("FireS.txt", "r+");
if(!$fp) die ("The file is not there stupid");
//Read the whole file
$data = fread($fp, 122000000);
//Replace excess spaces and hard returns with tabs
$change = ereg_replace("\r\n", "\t", $data);
//Replace Comments:Comments with single comments filed
$change1 = ereg_replace("COMMENTS:COMMENTS:", "Comment:", $change);
//Replace irregular \ characters from form

$change2 = ereg_replace("\\", "", $change1);
//Separate the unique form data by a hard return
$change3 = ereg_replace("date:", "\r\n\r\ndate:", $change2);
//Write the data back to the tail-end of the original file
fwrite($fp, $change3);
//Echo the data back in the browser to check that the code worked
echo $change3;
//Close the file
fclose($fp);

Of course, if you have any suggestions for making it more efficient????