CSV - where to start?

[theWax]

hi,

i post this variable (a long string with all the users answers) to php (from Flash):

answers="question1=1,question2=3,question3_1=1,question3_2=3,question4=Hallo World, ... "

(there will be no other commas or double quotes or any special characters in the answers, so there will be no need to check that)

now, i want to save it into a CSV File.

question1|question2|question3_1|question3_2|question4|...
1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Hallo World | ...

When the next User sends his answers to php, i would have to open the CSV File and write a new long row with the new answers into it and save/close everything again...and so on...

question1|question2|question3_1|question3_2|question4|...
1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Hallo World | ...
1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | newbie | ...

i am not completely stupid, but i just don't know where to start. :-) (and i am new to php)
i think i will have to deal with

fgetcsv()
fclose();
explode()

and that kind of string handling and array management.

could some point me in the right direction, tell me how to start or just help me in any way?

thank you very much,

waxman

[cheese]

I'm VERY 🙂 new at this so I don't know if this will help.

Could you use;

$answers =" question1=1,question2=3,question3_1=1,question3_2=
3,question4=Hallo World, ... "

$newanswers = substr($answers, 11, 1);
$newanswers= $newanswers + substr($answers, 23, 1);

etc.......

Not sure and it's not pretty, but it might work.

Regards,

Neil.

[theWax]

hei cheese,
thanx for your reply.
i've learned so far that it probably can be done like this:

<snip>if you do not have to worry about double quotes (or perhaps leading = signs), a csv file is just
value1;value2;value3
So wherever you want a column boundary, you just put a ;
Also, there is no need to read the file before adding another row, so you can simply fopen("results.csv", "a") and then add new entry

Musicman</snip>

so...i THINK i could go this way:

if i pass $answer="value1;value2;value3"; to php

i can do

$handle =fopen("results.csv", "a") ;
fwrite($handle, $answer);
fclose($handle);

right?

cheers,
wax'n roll

[Xoid]

well... to create CSV files you must use the following format:

e.g. A,B,C,D

  10,10,10,10

using commas in this case not semi colons.

so if you want to create a CSV files it's not too difficult if you follow the relevent file structure.

Hope this helps!

[cheese]

Sorry the suggestion I made should have been;

$newanswers = substr($answers, 11, 1);
$newanswers = $newanswers +",";
$newanswers = $newanswers + substr($answers, 23, 1);
$newanswers = $newanswers +",";

etc.......

......to add the comma's

Sorry,

Neil.