Working with Files

macinslaw

Here's the deal:

While I have had some of my questions answered, very well I must add, here on the forum, I am in need of more, and I feel really bad about sucking up all the time from others who are in need of more help. So, can anyone point me in the direction of a really good tutorial that deals with files?

I am wanting to understand the relationship between files and databases as well as understanding all the commands that can be used when dealing with them.

I have PHP Bible, but it only has somme 5 pages where files are mentioned, and basically only shows the commands like feof and such, no practical examples.

Also, please keep in mind that while this is only my second project in PHP and I am an old basic programer, some concepts escape me like class vs objects. A good tutorial on this would be appreciated as well!

Thanks very much for your time and assistance.

Mac

subwayman

In truth the best place to start is the PHP manual at www.php. com. Enter file in the search. You will soon get a whole list of all the file handling functions. The PHP manual is one of the best written for open source technologies and every function has examples. Furthermore, every section has a whole stream of comments from experienced users that is always worth reading to see what can be done.

macinslaw

Thanks for the response. I tried that, but most often I get information that is either way over my head, or not pertinent to my question. Mostly the latter. I can't possibly remember an entire manual, like some of you! 🙂 And for instance, I posted a question, and got some code examples like this one:

$linkhtml = <<<LINK

<a href="$dir/$file">$file</a>
LINK;
print $linkhtml;

Now, there is no explanation of any part of the code, but the code works great. I know what it does, but not why. To perform the same function, I was doing the following:

Mine is a real pain in the bo-tox! How did the nice guy who shared this with me, learn the command? Every site, tutorial, and information and search page I have gone to for info on links shows my method rather than his. Does my question make more sense, or am I muddying the water! LOL

And by the way, here is the PHP explanation of LINK, just as an example (I run into this with every function I have ever tried to lookup!)

link
(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

link -- Create a hard link
Description
bool link ( string target, string link )

link() creates a hard link. Returns TRUE on success or FALSE on failure.

Note: This function will not work on remote files as the file to be examined must be accessible via the servers filesystem.

Note: This function is not implemented on Windows platforms.

See also the symlink() to create soft links, and readlink() along with linkinfo().

The above is a complete explanation of the function from php.net's site.

Look, you guys here are great, and I appreciate your assistance. I know a decent amount of code and am able to do most anything I want, but my code is always huge. The last site I built for a tracking program I wrote some 40000 lines of php code for a relatively small site. I know there are better smaller ways of coding, but trying to find the specific info on the web is like taking a drink from a fire hose. Then sometimes I get code in answer to a question with no explanation which makes it hard to re-use. As I said, I am not of a programmer's mind, nor do I know any other languages, even my HTML comes from a gui editor that I alter the code in to suit my needs. How do you guys, even the newbies, find these shorter ways of coding?

I looked at the newbie section thinking that maybe I could help someone with something that stumped me for a time, but even their methods of connecting to a mysql db is quite different. I don't know, maybe I'm just lost in this stuff! LOL

Thanks for listening.

subwayman

Boy are you confused.

The LINK in your example has nothing to do with link() the PHP function.

The example also shows that you really are trying to run before you can walk. PHP/MYSQL is not somehting you can learn on the fly without doing some groundwork first. Hacking someone else's code without the first steps of the language under your belt is a recipte for disaster. The PHP bible is not the book to learn from either as it can be more of a cookbook then a tutor for the inexperienced.

Do yourself a favour and get hold of a copy of a b ook which shows you php right from first principles and make sure you work through the examples. Reading a book and thinking you understand something is not the same as learning by doing.

If you go through one of the standard texts then wrtie a frew simple pages using what you have learned you will be able to post much more meaningful questions to us and have a half decent chance of understanding the answers.

macinslaw

I have bought many books, I also have the Sams PHP and Mysql book on developing websites. I have gone through that book extensively.

The real fact that I have found is that there is NO BOOK that that assumes you know nothing about programming. They all start out talking about how this language has certain principles with other languages that you might know and they skip or leave out vast ideas.

Fascinating you would say that about the above example, for it came straight from the PHP.NET's own site from the function list. So how is it not the PHP function LINK? While I may not have intimate knowledge in other languages, I have made a great deal of headway and have creatd some very useful apps already.

You suggestion about another book is great, but you don't site one. LOL Do you have a suggestion? I would be very happy to find a good book on this and finally learn this the best I can, but so far no one can even come up with one. I apologize if this sounds flaming, it really isn't meant to. I'm very frustrated that I make a great deal of headway, mostly through trial and error, as most books assume too much. I'm not a newbie, really, because I'm on my third application for business use.

okay, so what is the link above? HTML? PERL? JAVA? I'm really frustrated.....I would love better guidance than just, "buy a book".

Again, I apologize if I sound offensive in any way. I came here looking for direction, instead I feel as though I have reveived a compass kit! LOL

-Mac

Weedpacket

<<<LINK

http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.types.string.php#language.types.string.syntax.heredoc

So the manual's search function isn't marvellous, and it could do with an index of the type that books have, but it is in there🙂 Start at the beginning, go through the tutorial chapters, try the code, mess around with the code. Yes, it's a reference manual so it has to contain everything about the language no matter how advanced. Remember that not everything to do with programming is going to be in a PHP manual. Read code, write code, and practice. And that phrase reminds me of something .... ah, this.

bretticus

I'm very frustrated that I make a great deal of headway, mostly through trial and error, as most books assume too much.

Trial and error is a great way to learn programming. You cannot be afraid to fail. I dunno about the rest of the guys here but when I am building code it's a constant build, test,build, test (or refresh browser, test in PHP 😃 ) Nobody I know writes an entire program or script all at once to have it magically work after typing the last semi-colon.

REMEMBER, the concepts that are hard to grasp for you right now WILL solidify in your mind as you continue the the application of them. When they do, you can build on them perpetually. Just keep cranking away.

Finally, remember that sometimes google can be a better friend than PHP.NET. For example I googled PHP Basics and the first three results were pretty decent.