[Resolved] Flat file values to drop-down menu

zzz

Hi,

I'm using a flat fil to store some values, instead of db. Is there a way of getting these values into a drop-down manu? I think I know how to do it if they were in db, but am not sure where to begin if they're in a file...

lilleman

How is the data stored in your textfile? Maybe something like this?

value|value|value
something|anything|value

zzz

right now it's like this:

file header

// val1, val2, val3, val4

and the data is like this:

<del>value1<del>value2<del>value3<del>value4

lilleman

If the values doesn't contain any < then you should be able to do something like this:

<?php

// Load the file
$data = file_get_contents("the_file.txt");

// Find all the values
preg_match_all("#<del>([^<]+)#i", $data, $match);

// Print the list
echo "<select name=\"name_of_select\">\n";
foreach($match[1] as $value) {
  echo "<option value=\"$value\">$value</option>\n";
}
echo "</select>\n";

?>

zzz

It definitelly works, but I need just a bit more help.

Currently ALL FIELDS populate my drop-down list and I need only two.

I have he following values:

ID<del>name<del>description etc.

How do I have it populate in this format:

<option value='$ID'>$name</option>

I've tried it different ways, but can't seem to be able to get it right.

lilleman

Just change the content of the loop a bit:

foreach($match[1] as $value) {
  list($id, $name) = split("<del>", $value);
  echo "<option value=\"$id\">$name</option>\n";
}

zzz

I'm sorry, it must be quite obvious but I'm a bit lost. Where do we ger $match from? Do we set is before and what should it be referring to?

lilleman

Oh sorry, my mistake. This is what it should look like:

<?php

// Load the file
$data = file("the_file.txt");

// Print the list
echo "<select name=\"name_of_select\">\n";
foreach($data as $value) {
  list($id, $name) = split("<del>", $value);
  echo "<option value=\"$id\">$name</option>\n";
}
echo "</select>\n";

?>

zzz

Beautiful! Works just as I needed it to work. Thanks for your patience.