Write to text file line by line

[Royce]

I want to take form input and write it to a text file. I want one variable per line. Example:

name:_____
Address___
Number___
zip_______

The input would be written to the text file like this:

bob
555 bla lane
714-555-1212
90210

I will have around 50-100 different form fields consisting of text boxes, drop downs, and check boxes. Can someone give me the code to do this. I pick up things really easy so I just need someone to get me started. Thanks!

[br__ken]

<?
// writes the stuff into the file //
if($_POST):
	$thefile="what.txt";
	$handler=fopen($thefile,"a");

foreach($_POST as $k=>$v)
	fwrite($handler,"$k=$v\n");

fclose($handler);
endif;
?>

<!-- use with form like: -->

<form method=post action="posttest.php">
<input type=text name="firstName">
<input type=text name="lastName">
<input type=text name="address">
<input type=text name="zip">
<input type=text name="phone">
<input type=submit value="submit">

very basic code, format the form. but remember $k will always = the form-elements name attrib. thats why i was using firstName, etc.

you can do a bunch of other things too, and even have the php code in the same page. but this was just a basic example
-r

[Royce]

Thanks for the reply. It doesn't do 3 things I need. 1. Overwrite the old info. 2. I want just the input in the file, not the name= stuff. 3. How do I pre-populate the input fields in the form with what is in the text file? Thanks!!!!

[TheReverend]

Answers:

1: In the current code the fopen mode is append (hence the a in the second argument). You'll want to change the mode to write which will erase all the info and start at the beginning of the text file. You can do that by replacing a with w. Example:

<?php

$handler=fopen($thefile,"w");

?>

2: Just change the fwrite part of the code. Currently the code is printing the key, which is the name of the field. You'll want to get rid of that, so change it to this:

<?php

foreach($_POST as $k=>$v)
        fwrite($handler,"$v\n");

?>

3: I can't answer 3 because I've haven't had the use to read from files yet--but I will be soon, so I need to investigate it. I'm sure it has to do with fopen and some string functions. Others can probably help with this one.

However, I have a question for you. Is there any reason you're using a text file for this sort of thing? Are you going to have multiple text files? If so I'd recommend using MySQL :-) Or atleast look into MySQL.

Hope this helps :-)

[Royce]

Thanks so much! I'm not using MySQL because I haven't learned it yet. I figured a text file would be easier for now. Also, there are some outside programs reading from the text file and I don't know if they would work with MySQL. I'm going to try this script right now, Thanks!

One more thing, what do I add so that after I hit submit it says something like "your data has been submitted" ??

Update: I made the fields prepopulated by adding this
<input type=text name="firstName" value="<?php echo $snow[1]; ?> ">

That works for text but I'm not sure how I'll do a dropdown or checkbox. Let me know peoples! 🙂

[br__ken]

haha whoa nice 🙂

for the other question do something like

<script>
function conf()
{
alert('Thank you for submitting your data');
}
</script>

and change the form tag to:

<form onSubmit="conf();" action="blah" method="post">

[Royce]

I want the dropdown menu on the form to have whatever the value is on a certain line of the text file selected. How do I do this?

Something like if $file[3] = value1 value1 is selected
if $file[3] = value2 then value2 selected

[TheReverend]

I use this pre-population stuff a lot for editing account info. It's real simple for drop down menus. But the concept you had going is what you'll have to do since you're not pulling your OPTION values from a database. Unfortunately it'll take longer because you have to run an IF statement for each value without the help of a loop :/ but it'll have the same effect :-)

<SELECT BLAH BLAH>
<?php

if($array[dropdown] == "value1")
     echo("<OPTION SELECTED value="value1">Value 1\n");
else
     echo("<OPTION value="value1">Value 1\n");

if($array[dropdown] == "value2")
     echo("<OPTION SELECTED value="value2">Value 2\n");
else
     echo("<OPTION value="value2">Value 2\n");

if($array[dropdown] == "value3")
     echo("<OPTION SELECTED value="value3">Value 3\n");
else
     echo("<OPTION value="value3">Value 3\n");

// and so on for each value...

?>

</SELECT>

You could alternatively store all the values in a separate text file and call the option values from that; however with the time it would take to set that up you'd already have this done.

I really recommend MySQL though :-) Not for this project, since you said other external scripts or applications are dependant on the text file. But, for other project MySQL is probably the way to go--you'll love it :-)

Here's an example of the script above using MySQL:

<SELECT BLAH BLAH>
<?php

$query = "SELECT * FROM optionvalues";
$result = mysql_query($query);
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result))
{
if($array[dropdown] == $row[value])
     echo("<OPTION SELECTED value=\"".$row[value]."\">".$row[value]."\n");
else
     echo("<OPTION value=\"".$row[value]."\">".$row[value]."\n");
}
?>
</SELECT>

[daveyboy]

To load in a file into fields, you need to read it in 4 lines at a time - one for each field - and then add them to an array of addresses. The problem here is that if, for some reason, there should be a wrongly formatted address, i.e. 3 or 5 lines, everything thereafter would be fooked. A more fault-tolerant way would be to use a delimiter line between addresses, say, '********************' or similar. Read the file in a string and explode() the string with the delimiter. Explode each result again with a newline character and toss away any that aren't 4 lines long.