getting array from file & creating the array.

sijis

This is a 2 part question:
1) Based on this code below, i get the output (also below), but i don't know how to create an array for it.
They way i get this data currently is a .txt file in the pattern like so:

/index.php Home .
/index.php Classifieds .
/index.php Events .

$this->_links = $file;
			echo "<p>this->links array<p>";
			foreach ($this->_links as $key => $value) {
				echo "Key: $key;$value<br>";
					foreach($value as $val){
						echo "Value: $val<br>";
					}
				echo "<p>\n";
			}

The Output:

Key: 0;
Value: /index.php
Value: Home
Value: .

Key: 1;
Value: /index.php
Value: Classifieds
Value: .

Key: 2;
Value: /index.php
Value: Events
Value: .

I did try this code, but it didn't seem to work:

array(
	array('/index.php','Home','.'),
	array('/index.php','Galleries','Home'),
	array('/index.php','Event','.'),
	array('/index.php','Time','Event')
);

2) Once i get that part solved, i want to put the array in a file called file.txt or file.php (i'm not sure if it would make a difference).
Then in my code i want to get that arrray that was created in the file and use it.

this is what i was trying, but also didn't work.

		$fd = fopen($file,"r");
		$contents = fread ($fd, filesize ($file));
		fclose ($fd);
		echo "Test:$contents | Array:".is_array($contents);

	if(is_array($contents)) {
        $this->_links = $file;
    }

What am i doing wrong?

sijis

So far it doesn't seem it's even possible. 🙁

Weedpacket

It's certainly possible, whatever it is. I for one don't really understand your problem. Could you explain it differently, perhaps?

sijis

Brief
Problem 1. i need to create an array.
Problem 2. I need to get the values of this array from a text file for a phpNav class.

I'm trying to create an array which its output is similar to this:

The Output:

Key: 0;
Value: /index.php
Value: Home
Value: .

Key: 1;
Value: /index.php
Value: Classifieds
Value: .

Now once i create this array, i'm going to put it in a file named link_db.txt. I do this because the phpNav class i'm using is getting the data from link_db.txt
The question is then, how can i get the data from the array (in the link_db.txt) so that the phpNav 'gets' it.

the PHP code i'm using is in my original posting.
Thanks.

Weedpacket

The array(array(...)) code you've got will produce the output you show (I've tried it).

Are you asking for a good format to use when storing that array in the text file that will make it easy to get out again? Or have you already decided on a format and want to know how to write the contents of the array in that format and/or read data in that format into an array?

sijis

sorry about that, i thought the array i wrote didn't work. when i first echoed it, it didn't have the desired result... thanks though.

2nd question.

Are you asking for a good format to use when storing that array in the text file that will make it easy to get out again?

Yes!

now that i have the array, i'm putting it in a text file. (link_db.txt).
The class i'm using requires this file so that it can get the data.
my question is as follows then:
how do i store this array in the link_db.txt file?
so that it works with the phpNav class?

here's a strip down sample of the class. (it can be found here: xhawk.net)

class phpNav{

function phpNav($link_db='') {
    if($link_db) {
        $this->setLinks($link_db);
    }
	$this->_preset_vals = array();
}

function setLinks($link_db) {

	$use_cache = 0; //using a cached db may be slower!
	$cache_file = 'cache/'.$link_db.'.cache';

            // my problem is below. why?
	if(is_array($link_db)) {
        $this->_links = $link_db;
    }

    elseif($use_cache && file_exists($cache_file)) {
        $fp = fopen($cache_file, 'r');
        $this->_links = unserialize(fread($fp, filesize($cache_file)));
        fclose($fp);
    }
// this is the statement that does execute.
    elseif(file_exists($link_db)) {
        $file = file($link_db);
        foreach($file as $line) {
			if(ereg("^[^;#\r\n]", $line)) { //first character is NOT ;#\r\n
                $this->_links[] = split("\t+", trim($line));
            }
        }

		if($use_cache) {
            $fp = fopen($cache_file, 'w');
            fwrite($fp, serialize($this->_links));
            fclose($fp);
		}
    } else {
		echo 'no link data found';
        return false;
    }
}

}

in order to create the object, in php code i have to do this:

include 'phpnav.class.php';
$php_nav = new phpNav('link_db.txt');

i know i might be confusing, but hopefully you understand what i'm trying to do.

Weedpacket

Ah, tab-separated.

Say $links is that array you're writing out. First, turn the inner array()s into single strings, separating the elements by tabs. Then turn the outer array() into a single string, separating its elements by newlines...

$output = $links; 
foreach($output as $k=>$v)
{   $output[$k]=join("\t",$v);
}
$output = join("\n",$output);

I reckon $output now contains the data in the required format, ready for writing to the file.

(If you were designing the format yourself, a sneaky way of doing it is using actual PHP code as your format - so that what you write is exactly the same array(array(...)) stuff you might use yourself in code. Then to read it in you'd just use include(). Possibly even easier: use serialise() to turn PHP data into a string from which the original data can be reconstructed using unserialise().)

sijis

well, it is tab seperated, but that is for the original link_db.txt file.
i really wanted to get into the is_array() condition.

what i wanted to do was this:

link_db.txt

array(
array('/index.php','Home','.'),
array('/index.php','Galleries','Home'),
array('/index.php','Event','.'),
array('/index.php','Time','Event')
);

then in nav.php do
<?php
include 'phpnav.class.php';
$php_nav = new phpNav('link_db.txt');
..... // rest of code
?>

what i ended up doing was:

nav.php

include 'phpnav.class.php';
$links = array(
array('/index.php','Home','.'),
array('/index.php','Galleries','Home'),
array('/index.php','Event','.'),
array('/index.php','Time','Event')
);
$php_nav = new phpNav($links);

this works, but it still would be great to know how to get my data from the link_db.txt

last thing, so you know.
the original link_db.txt was tab-seperated but i noticed in while looking into the class, it could also use arrays instead of a tab-seperated list. So i then preceeded to try to get the array functionality to work, which i apparently have working now.
thanks again for the help.