how to store/hardcode variables' content into a file that was created by PHP?

[marcnyc]

Hello folks, I cannot figure out how to hardcode/transfer the content of my variables (single variables or arrays) into a file that I created in PHP...

In other words I have this:

<?php
$variable='test';
$file = 'test_file.php';
$file_pointer = fopen( $file, 'w' );
$string = '
<? echo $variable; ?>
';
fwrite( $file_pointer, $string );
fclose($file_pointer);
?>

My test_file.php file is created and it's content is <? echo $variable; ?> but the variable isn't passed along... How can I achieve that?

I am hoping for an easy beginner-friendly solution.
Thank you very much for looking into this.

[samscripts]

$string = '<? echo $variable; ?>';

Hi, the problem is that you are using single, rather than double quotes.

With single quotes ' .... ' php does not substitute the variable value for its name.

With double quotes " ... " php does.

eg.

$variable = 200;

$string = '<? echo $variable; ?>';

// $string = <?echo $variable; ?>

$string = "<? echo $variable; ?>";

// $string = <?echo 200;?>

One problem with this, is if $variable contains a string rather than a number, then you need quotes around the value of this string, otherwise you'll get:

$variable = "Hello World";

$string = "<? echo $variable;?>";

// $string = <? echo Hello World; ?> which would create a parser error

I think the best way to do it would be:

$string = '<? echo "' . addslashes($variable) . '"; ?>';

which should also take care of any situations where $variable contains " characters.

Hope this helps,

Sam

[marcnyc]

Thanks a lot for your solution... Unfortunately my situation is a little messier than that...

I have a file called form.php with the following code:

      <form name="form" method="POST" action="process.php">
	<?php
	   $n=4;
	     for($i=0;$i<$n;$i++)
		{  

	      	echo "<input type=\"text\" name=\"Q[]\"><br>";
		}
	?>
       <input type="submit" name="Submit" value="Submit">
      </form>

which will obviously output 4 text fields where to input my variables in...

The variables are then sent to the file process.php which creates the file file.php which should contain PHP code to print the variables that came all the way from the initial form...

The process.php code looks as following (as you can see I tried to apply your solution, but I had no luck):

<?php
$file = 'file.php';
$file_pointer = fopen( $file, 'w' );

$string = '
	<?php
                    // for PHP v4.1 and up
                    $Questions = $_POST["Q"];
                    // for earlier than PHP v4.1 versions
                    // $Questions = $HTTP_POST_VARS["Q"];
                    $maxQ = count($Questions);

     for($i=0;$i<$maxQ;$i++)
	{
	 echo " '. addslashes(".$Questions[$i].") .' ";
	}
?>
';

fwrite( $file_pointer, $string );
fclose($file_pointer);

echo "<a href=\"$file\">$file</a>";
?>

Would you be so kind and pull me out of the darkness? I have been killing myself over this dilemma for 2 weeks now... I would greatly appreciate your help!

[samscripts]

Hi, just to make it what you are trying to get a bit clearer, can you post what the output should be as an example? That is, what file.php should contain if it all worked properly?

I'm just not quite sure about when you want variable names and when variable values output.

Sam

[marcnyc]

No problem...

Let's say somebody enters the following stuff in the 4 text fields of form.php:

1st text field: hello
2nd text field: 123 222 3313
3rd text field: I have just seen the movie "The Matrix" with 'Vin Diesel' and I liked it...
4th text field: is this all going to work???

That stuff will be then entered into the Q array as Qn and will then be transformed into the variables Question1, Question2, Question3 and Question4.

In the final file "file.php" I should have the following code (my syntax might be wrong here, it's just an example):

<?
echo Question1;
echo "<br>";
echo Question2;
echo "<br>";
echo Question3;
echo "<br>";
echo Question4;
echo "<br>";
?>

of course I understand that because the variables are not stored anywhere in a file that is being created they have to be converted into their values right away so that they can be hardcoded in the newly created file so the code contained in "file.php" should like like the following (again syntax will be wrong here):

<?
echo "hello";
echo "<br>";
echo "123 222 3313";
echo "<br>";
echo "I have just seen the movie \"The Matrix\" with 'Vin Diesel' and I liked it...";
echo "<br>";
echo "is this all going to work???[/";
echo "<br>";
?>

And naturally when file.php is executed that code should then output the following values:

hello
123 222 3313
I have just seen the movie "The Matrix" with 'Vin Diesel' and I liked it...
is this all going to work???

It is important to me that the file form.php maintains the ability for me to change the value of the variable $n (number of text fields) so that I can have as many as I want, and that the file process.php will then count how many variables I passed along and will print them all...

I hope I did explain it better as opposed to confuse you even more... I appreciate your help.

[samscripts]

Hi, I think the main problem is with your process.php file - your are trying to put everything (including the loop that creates the file.php) into $string.

This should work:

<?php

$file = 'file.php';
$file_pointer = fopen( $file, 'w' );

$string = '<?php';

// for PHP v4.1 and up
$Questions = $_POST["Q"];
// for earlier than PHP v4.1 versions
// $Questions = $HTTP_POST_VARS["Q"];
$maxQ = count($Questions);

for($i=0;$i<$maxQ;$i++)
{
	$string .= "\necho \" ". str_replace('"', '\"',stripslashes($Questions[$i])) ."\";";
}
$string .= "\n?>";

fwrite( $file_pointer, $string );
fclose($file_pointer);

echo "<a href=\"$file\">$file</a>";

?>

What it does is create $string with the opening <?php tag, then loop through the questions, appending each one to string.

I realised that addslashes() is not what you want after all, because as the info has come from a form, it has already had it applied. In fact, the code above strips any extra slashes that have been added, then just escapes any " that are there.

The above code should :rolleyes: work ok and hopefully you can modify it from there.

Hope it helps (and works!)

Sam

[marcnyc]

You're THE MAN! You ROCK Dude! 😃

Thank you SOOOOOO MUCH because I could have NEVER EVER figured that shit out on my own!!!

Sweet! Thanks again for all the patience, time and effort you put into helping me...

If I was an native american indian I would now say something like "my house is your house" but in NYC it's too dangerous to throw such invitations out... but if I can help you (most likely not in anything PHP related) I'll be glad to ;-)

Thanks again!