[Resolved] moving array contents to string

Mophilly

I want to send data in an email. The data is in an array, $export. I have tried a couple of ways to get this done but no joy. Here is the last attempt:

$message = "The following rows have been marked for export. \n\n"
." PROJECT: $project[0] \n"
." Post Date: $postdate \n\n"
." For all tasks completed on or after $startdate \n\n"
."Exported Data: \n\n"

while ($export = mysql_fetch_row($result4)) {
."$export[0] "
."$export[1] "
."$export[2] "
."$export[3] "
."$export[4] "
."$export[5] "
."$export[6] "
."$export[7] "
."$export[8] "
."$export[9] "
."$export[10] "
."$export[11] "
."$export[12] ***"
."/n/n"
}
."/n/n";

I tried an iterator on the array cells without any success.

I sense I must have overlooked something really obvious.

stolzyboy

kinda confused on what you are really trying to do, but you can implode the array, so it is a string of whatever separated by whatever you want

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.implode.php

Mophilly

Thanks, "implode" looks interesting. So does serialize.

What I am trying to do is place the result set of a query in an email. The email will be parsed by the receiver and loaded into another database. This is a temporary situation but necessary to keep things moving.

So, the real question is:
How do I place the contents of an array into a string in an ordered fashion, so that the string can be part of the body of the email?

stolzyboy

Originally posted by Mophilly
So, the real question is:
How do I place the contents of an array into a string in an ordered fashion, so that the string can be part of the body of the email?

's maybe?

like this

<?
$array = array('lastname', 'email', 'phone');
$separated = implode("<br>", $array);
echo $separated;
?>

will produce

lastname
email
phone

maxpup979

Wouldn't "\n" be more appropriate for a non html enabled email? Or did I miss that part?...That way you actually end up with
lastname
email
phone

and not lastname email phone

but then again, since it is going to be parsed, I can also assume that just about any delineater will work --

stolzyboy

he didn't specifically say non-html email, so depending on what he wants either non-html or html, he needs to choose /n or or however else he wants to separate them...

Mophilly

Morning! (if it is for you)

I have had a chance to work with implode, and it works as advertised. Still it is not what I seek. So, I am considering different algorithms for the problem.

I think my goal is best described as an export format. Tab or comma delimited is fine.

Given an array of two rows:
A, B, C
D, E, F

Implode(',',array) returns:
A,B,C,D,E,F

What I seek is:
A<tab>B<tab>C<cr>
D<tab>E<tab>F

or the comma delimited equivalent.

Would the best approach be to iterate through the array, row by row? If so, how do I code that?

stolzyboy

you can use [man]array_slice[/man] or a number of other array functions and slice them every three, and put breaks after the third with nbsp's in between the elements to mimic tabs

Mophilly

Excellent. array_slice is interesting and it gave me an idea. Here is my current solution:

$dq = '"'; // declare a double quote for readablity
$dm = $dq.chr(9).$dq; // declare the delimiter
// get the first row, if there is one
if ($export = mysql_fetch_row($result4)) {
// implode the row with enclosing delimiters and EOL marker
$row = $dq.implode($dm,$export).$dq.chr(10);
// aggregate the first row
$exportdata = $exportdata.$row;
while ($export = mysql_fetch_row($result4)) {
// get remaining rows, if any
$row = $dq.implode($dm,$export).$dq.chr(10);
$exportdata = $exportdata.$row; }
} else {
$row = 'No data fetched';
}

Now this works, but I cannot say it "good PHP" if you know what I mean.

Happy days!