fwrite leaves trailing return characters when writing

kazer

When writing to a file, fwrite leaves return characters at the end of each line. The php tags (<? ?>) do not but the lines that end with a semi-colon do. I'm unsure if this has anything to do with it, but I thought i'd mention it.

The variable being written to the file is composed by a for loop that pulls specific lines out of the file for re-writing and adds new lines if applicable.

//Line read function
function lineread($line)
{
$lines = file('links.inc');
return $lines[$line];
}

//For loop creating the new variable to be written
if($action=="save") {
for($y; $y <= $number; $y++) {
$$var = 'l'.$y;
$linewrite=$linewrite.stripslashes(${$$var});
}
if($new) { $linewrite=$linewrite."$"."links[]['$newname'] = '$newlink';"; }
$fd = fopen("links.inc","w");
fwrite($fd, "<"."?\n");
fwrite($fd, $linewrite);
fwrite($fd, "?".">");
fclose($fd);
}

(links.inc)
<?
$links[]['Home'] = 'index.php';
$links[]['Business Card'] = 'bcard.php';
?>

I've left the specifics of what is actually going on with the file out of my explination here, but this should be enough to go on for some pointers?

I surmise the return characters may be coming from the way I join the the lines. ($linewrite=$linewrite.stripslashes(${$$var})😉

Also, since it's up here... I am unable to get fwrite to input the php breaks unless I do it as shown above. Is there a more efficient way to do this?

-T

Weedpacket

I'm not entirely clear what you're trying to achieve (I suspect the $links[]['foo'] syntax may prove to be buggy, on the strength of

$this[]['foo']='bar';
$this[]['baz']='wibble';
print_r($this);

) and there must be some simpler method to do what I suspect it is you're doing.

But you do realise that lines read into $lines with file() will have their newline characters still attached? If that isn't stripped off and you write it out again with a newline attached - wll, you end up with two newlines.

kazer

What i'm doing is something that would be amazingly easy if I was using a database of any kind ::growls a bit:: However, my client doesn't want anything to do with one.... so here is the explination:

I have another piece of code with a for loop that pulls each item out of links.inc and places it into a table to form a navigation menu.

$links[]['Home'] = 'index.php'; translates out to to a link with an image next to it that goes to index.php. All of which works wonderfully. My dillema here is that I need to have the simple functionality of adding and removing menu items. Currently this works perfectly except for the return characters. To be honest it really doesn't matter because the script seems to work fine even with them there. Even so, i'm a bit of a perfectionist and I'm also just looking for some answers as to why it's doing this. As for the newlines doubling up, that appears to be exactly what is happening. How would I go about trimming that character off?

-Tyler

Oh, and the page is here: http://www.curvyline.com/simko

Weedpacket

Originally posted by kazer
What i'm doing is something that would be amazingly easy if I was using a database of any kind ::growls a bit:: However, my client doesn't want anything to do with one....

Then impress upon your client the great benefits from having a database 🙂 - but I know what you mean.

$links[]['Home'] = 'index.php'; translates out to to a link with an image next to it that goes to index.php.

I was just wondering what the extra [] was for, is all.

How would I go about trimming that character off?

I'd probably use trim() on each line in the array, myself...

kazer

The extra bracket on the array is there in the event I should want to further break apart the menu into different subsections.

The trim function did the trick, everything is saving correctly now, thanks!

-T

Weedpacket

Well, it seems a bit unnecessary, is all. What you're getting now is an array like

$links = array(
    array('Home'=>'index.php'),
    array('Business Card'=>'bcard.php'),
...
);

I'd've thought a more useful (and extensible) arrangement would be

$links = array(
    array('label'=>'Home', 'url'=>'index.php'),
    array('label'=>'Business Card', 'url'=>'bcard.php'),
....
);

Referring to the displayed label as $links[4]['label'], and the corresponding url as $links[4]['url']. The addition of a third "category" field would be obvious, and you'd still be free to add further fields.

The only thing is that numeric index. If the labels are unique (no two links have the same label), then you can ditch the numeric index and the label attribute, and index by the label:

$links = array(
   'Home'=>array('url'=>'index.php', 'category'=>'main'),
    'Business Card'=>array('url'=>'bcard.php', 'category'=>'contact'),
...
);

And then you can locate the Home page's URL by referring to $links['Home']['url'] and its category by $links['Home']['category']. Again, further extensibility is ensured.

They could be written out in much the same way as you are:

$links['Home']['url']='index.php'; $links['Home']['category']='main';
...

Or in exactly the same way as I do above (I've just made a wee test and found that PHP will tolerate a stray comma just before the ')' that ends an array.), or the obvious half-way version:

$links['Home']=array('url'=>'index.php', 'category'=>'main');

But if what you've got is already working then - well - don't change what's not broken - at least, not until your client tells you to 😉