I need help with my stat-script

[Michiel]

Hi,

I'm working on a flat-file db stat script and I need some help with it. The structure of the flat-file db is like this: for each user-statistic a different .dat file exists (e.g. browser.dat, screenresolution.dat etc.) For example the browser.dat file looks like this:

MIE5.0|10|5
NN4.51|2|2
OPERA6|5|3

where the first colums represents the browsertype, the second column are the total hits with this browser and the third one are the unique hits.

So far I've written a function that should register a user. Unfortunately it doesn't work as it should ... the script doesn't write the values to the .dat file. Where do I go wrong?

function AddStat($table, $new_value) {

$fp = file("$table.dat");


for ($i = 0; $i < count($fp); $i++) 
    {
    $line = split("\|",$fp[$i]);
    $value[$i] = $line[0];
    $hits[$i] = $line[1];
    $unique[$i] = $line[2];
    }

for ($i = 0; $i < count($fp); $i++)
    {
    if ($new_value == $value[$i])
       {
       $match = "1";
       break;
       }
    else $match = "0";
    }


// Value is not recorded before.
if ($match == 0)
   {
   $i = count($fp)++;
   $value[$i] = $new_value;
   $hits[$i] = 1;
   $unique[$i] = 1;
   }

// Value is recorded before.
elseif ($match == 1)
   {
   $hits[$i]++;
   $unique[$i]++;
   }

$fp = fopen("$table.dat", w);


for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($value); $i++) 
    {
    $data = "$value[$i]|$hits[$i]|$unique[$i]\n";

$fout = fwrite($fp, $data);
}

fclose($fp);

}

I hope someone can help .... thanx Michiel

[dannys]

$fp = fopen("$table.dat", w);

Shouldn't that be:

$fp = fopen("$table.dat", 'w');

[Michiel]

Hi,

you're right about that, but I don't think that it the real problem ... despite the missing '', there is in fact something written to the .dat file. The problem is that only the vertical lines ('|') are written and no actual values 🙁

Michiel

[piersk]

Ive done something similar before, but I used ~ instead cos if the similarity between | and the || symbol for OR. Could you try changing the | to ~ (or something similar)

[dannys]

have you tried var_dump($value) before that last for loop - to see if the array actually contains anything?

[dannys]

I find comma or tab seem to be the best separators

[piersk]

I only used tilda cos its something that i dont think has any function in PHP

[Michiel]

Hi,

I've made some (minor) adjustements to the script and now it works .... almost. When I write $data to the .dat file the problem occurs: when I put \n at the end of $data the script performs some strange oucomes and when I leave the \n out it solves the problem, but a new one arises. I find it hard to explain, so please check it out for yourself. I hope someone can help me out on this!

function AddStat($table, $new_value) {

$fp = file("$table.dat");

for ($i = 0; $i < count($fp); $i++) 
    {
    $line = split("\|",$fp[$i]);
    $value[$i] = $line[0];
    $hits[$i] = $line[1];
    $unique[$i] = $line[2];
    }

for ($i = 0; $i < count($fp); $i++)
    {
    if ($new_value == $value[$i])
       {
       $match = 1;
       break;
       }
    else $match = 0;
    }


// Value is not recorded before.
if ($match == 0)
   {
   $num = count($fp);
   $i = $num++;
   $value[$i] = $new_value;
   $hits[$i] = 1;
   $unique[$i] = 1;
   }

// Value is recorded before.
if ($match == 1)
   {
   $hits[$i]++;
   $unique[$i]++;
   }

$fp = fopen("$table.dat", "w");


for ($i = 0; $i < sizeof($value); $i++) 
    {
    // With or without '\n'????
    $data = "$value[$i]|$hits[$i]|$unique[$i]";
    //$data = "$value[$i]|$hits[$i]|$unique[$i]\n";
    $fout = fwrite($fp, $data);
    }

fclose($fp);

}

Thanx Michiel

[dannys]

I think the problem is that you are not trimming the the newlines from the data when you read the file in, so you were actually adding to the number of newlines evertime you wrote the file - hence lots of weird errors

I took the liberty of giving your code a little bit of polish (that's how I found the error). It seems to work ok here.

<?php

function AddStat($table, $new_value)
{
	if (file_exists("$table.dat"))
		$fp=file("$table.dat");
	else
		$fp=Array();

$match=false;

foreach($fp as $line)
{
	list($value,$hits,$unique)=explode('|',trim($line));

	$stat[$value]=Array('hits'=>$hits,'unique'=>$unique);

	if ($value==$new_value)
		$match=true;
}

if ($match)
{
	$stat[$new_value]['hits']++;
	$stat[$new_value]['unique']++;
}
else
	$stat[$new_value]=Array('hits'=>1,'unique'=>1);

if (!$fp = fopen("$table.dat", "w"))
	die("Couldn't open $table.dat for writing!");

foreach($stat as $key=>$value)
{
	$line="$key|{$value['hits']}|{$value['unique']}\r\n";
	fputs($fp,$line,strlen($line));
}
fclose($fp);
}

?>

[Michiel]

Thank you very much!

The code works perfectly now, and is indeed more efficient. I've started with php not so long ago, so I still do things a bit 'clumsy'. Looking at code's like yours really is good learning material!

Thanx Michiel

[dannys]

Yeah, it's amazing what a little experience can bring 🙂

[Michiel]

Hi,

I'm back again with a new question on my stat script. Since the storing of data is going ok now and have come to the next point: showing the stats. For now I think I'm just gona stretch images to display bars. Because I want to keep control of the size of the different bars I can't just use the statistics direcly. I need to check the maximum value of the hits per value first. I figured that max() would be appropriate function for this. But I don't know what to put between the brackets.... This code I've got so far:

function ShowUserStats($table) {

if (file_exists("$table.dat")) $fp=file("$table.dat");

else die("Couldn't open $table.dat for reading!");

foreach ($fp as $line)
        {
        list($value,$hits,$unique)=explode('|',trim($line));
        $stat[$value]=Array('hits'=>$hits,'unique'=>$unique);
        }

$max = max(????);
$factor = 300/$max;

foreach ($stat as $key=>$value)
        {
        $hits = {$value['hits']} * $factor;
        $unique = {$value['unique']} * $factor;
        print "<TABLE><TR><TD>";
        print "<B>$key</B>";
        print "</TD><TD>";
        print "<IMG src=\"hits.gif\" height=\"10\" width=\"$hits\" border=\"1\"><BR>";
        print "<IMG src=\"unique.gif\" height=\"10\" width=\"$unique\" border=\"1\">";
        print "</TD></TR></TABLE>";
        }

} 

Can someone help me out?

Thanx Michiel