first occurence in a file ??

vmusic

Hi,
I am looking for a php function that will take a file pointer, and move it to the first occurence of a character (or character set) in a file. And yes, of course I don't know WHERE or what position in the file this character (or character in a set) will be.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE.... I dont' want HTDIG or some Linux solution. I can't run them on the server, it's not my server.

I thought fscan() might do this but I can't get it to work right.

Any Ideas Would Be Appreciate

===>Details<======
What I am doing is looking for the first a-z or A-Z or 0-9 character in an MS Word file. I'm trying to start or move the file pointer past the up front garbage in the file.

Again please dont' give me a unix or linux script, I can't run them on the box. I need a php function or functions and directions on how it really works.

Thanks!!!

Weedpacket

fopen the file
$found=false.
$offset=-1;
while(!feof($filepointer))
{
$offset++;
$ch = fread($filepointer,1);
if $ch is not a nice character, continue;
otherwise, congrats: your filepointer is now looking at the first nice character in the file (plus 1, for the nice character you just read)
So set $found=true and break
} // elihw
if(!$found), we never saw a nice character. Whinge, moan and complain. Otherwise...
fseek($filepointer,$offset);
You're now pointing at the first nice character in the file.

The only bits of code I didn't write are peripheral to the issue: how to tell if $ch is a nice character, how to open a file, and what to do if we don't see one.