Read and display stored array

[Rayman3_tk]

Hi there!

I'm trying to see if I'm capable of storing an array to a file and afterwards reading and displaying it. Judging from the results I'm not. 🙂 Here's what I've got so far:

<?php

$filename = "testfile.txt";

if(isset($name)){

$savestring = print_r($_POST,true);

$fd = fopen($filename, "w+")
or die("Can't open file $filename");

$write = fwrite($fd, $savestring);
fclose($fd);

}

$array = file($filename);

echo("<pre>");
print_r($array);
echo("</pre>");

echo("
	<form name='test' method='POST' action='$php_self'>
	Name:
	<input type='text' name='name' value='".$array[name]."'>
	Aftname:
	<input type='text' name='aftname' value='".$array[aftname]."'>
	<input type='submit'>
	");

?>

What happens is that it stores my $_POST data into testfile.txt as follows:

Array
(
[name] => Hello
[aftname] => There!
)

It then converts this into an array, resulting in:

Array
(
[0] => Array

[1] => (

[2] =>     [name] => Hello

[3] =>     [aftname] => There!

[4] => )

)

Which is not what I meant to do, as I doesn't display the default values in my input text fields. So my question is: how would I do this right, so it actually displays the contents of my file in the text fields? Thanks!

[LordShryku]

Try storing it in the file under a dfferent varialble name, then include or require the file instead of reading it. This way, it's automatically interpretted.

[Rayman3_tk]

Forgive my my stupidness, but how would I do that? 😕

[LordShryku]

Nevermind. I realized that's probably more work than it's worth. Instead of just outputting the print_r values into the textfile, output into the file with a delimiter(I used =>). The once you read through the file, rebuild the array. Something like this...

<?php
$filename = "testfile.txt";
if(isset($filename)) {
   $string = "";
   foreach($_POST as $k => $v) {
      $string .= $k."=>".$v."\n";
   }
   $string  = substr($string, 0, -1);
   $fd     = fopen($filename, "w+") or die("Can't open file $filename");
   $write  = fwrite($fd, $string);
   fclose($fd);
}
$array = file($filename);
$new   = array();
foreach($array as $line) {
   $split = explode("=>", $line);
   $new[$split[0]] = $split[1];
}
print_r($new);
?>

[Rayman3_tk]

Thanks for your help my Lord. It works 😉 Just one question left: Why use substr on $string?

[LordShryku]

Because in the loop, you're adding a newline to the end of each entry. The substr just hacks off the last, blank new line.

[Rayman3_tk]

Ok, thanks again!