[RESOLVED] Incrementing + find and replace

Christopherblow

Hi,

I have a script that writes variable values to a file, which are passed from checkboxes that the user selects. The result is a document (an .rtf file, actually) that can have any number of these new items. I'm trying to add the correctly incremented numbers. So I want to go from:

<<number>> This is an item you checked from the many.
<<number>> This is another item you chose.
<<number>> Yet another brilliant choice.

This is an item you checked.
This is another item you chose.
Yet another brilliant choice.

So this is what my html form looks like:

(Notice I have added "<<number>>" to the beginning of each value. This is what I want to replace with item numbers in my final document. )

<p>Hello. Please check each of the items that you would like to include:</p>

<form action="<?php echo $PHP_SELF; ?>" method=post>

<input name="FOO[]" type="checkbox" value="<<number>> This is the 
first FOO item.">This is the first FOO item.<br />

<input name="FOO[]" type="checkbox" value="<<number>> This is the second
 FOO item.">This is the second FOO item.<br />

<input name="FOO[]" type="checkbox" value="<<number>> This is the third
FOO item.">This is the third FOO item.<br />

<input name="FOO[]" type="checkbox" value="<<number>> This is the 
fourthFOO item.">This is the fourth FOO item.<br />

</form>

Yesterday I was so happy when I finally figured out how to get my values into an rtf file using the following php (the rtf file contains placeholders like <<FOO1>> and <<FOO2>> etc.) :


// open our template file
$filename = 'template.rtf';
$fp = fopen ( $filename, 'r+' );

//read our template into a variable
$output = fread( $fp, filesize( $filename ) );

fclose ( $fp );


//Set shorter variable names
	$FOO = $_POST['FOO'];

// replace the place holders in the template with our data from the array

$output = str_replace( '<<FOO1>>', $FOO[0], $output );
$output = str_replace( '<<FOO2>>', $FOO[1], $output );
$output = str_replace( '<<FOO3>>', $FOO[2], $output );
$output = str_replace( '<<FOO4>>', $FOO[3], $output );

So the str_replace function leaves me with the variable values, but they still have the <<number>> placeholder. There may be as many as 20 <<number>> fields in a given document, or as few as 1 or 2. How do I replace the first <<number>> with the numeral "1", the second <<number>> with the numeral "2" and so on?

I first thought to use a for loop to create a variable with the inital value of 1, which is str_replace'd with the first <<number>>, then incremented and replaces the second until there are no more <<number>>s left in the document.

for ($numbers = 1, $numbers <= 20, $numbers++) {

$output = str_replace( '<<number>>', $numbers, $output );

}

But of course this doesn't work, and I can see why. Any ideas about how to replace these placeholders? Thanks!

Chris
nonprofitdesign.org

dalecosp

Why even have a <<number>> placeholder? Is your first output assignment in the form of a loop....?

   foreach ($_POST['FOO']) {
      $n++;
      $output = str_replace( '<<FOO1>>', "$n".". ".$FOO[$n], $output ); 
   }

HTH,

dalecosp

Well, a little prob there ... fix '<<FOO1>>' to read something like "<<FOO".$n.">>", .....

Christopherblow

Hi, thanks so much for the reply. Dalecosp's idea of doing incrementing a $n variable that I print with the user-submitted variables in a foreach loop is great! I love php. This is my first "from-scratch" project, and I could use further advice on the direction.

My idea originally was to have a rtf template in which I replaced placeholders. But I realized that this would cause problems if there were "leftover" placeholders.

I was thinking that I would have to go back and remove the placeholders using str_replace. I was going through all this trouble because the final document requires a lot of formatting (tables), which I didn't think I could print directly.

A screenshot of the document template is here:
http://www.nonprofitdesign.org/php-to-rtf-project/working-template.jpg

Since I started, I have found a Paggard's rtf class that simplifies rtf formatting, I'm using that.

Now I'm thinking that I will create the arrays (there are three different types of outout, so I have three arrays depending on the formatting), then I will append each one to the file.

I'm trying to use something like

// open our template file
$filename = 'test-document.rtf';
$fp = fopen ( $filename, 'a+' );        //now using append switch, not write

//read our template into a variable
    $output = fread( $fp, filesize( $filename ) );

fclose ( $fp );

I trying to use a foreach loop to echo to the first array (with the incremented numbers idea stated previously), then move on to the second array with different formatting using this rtf class, then the third array if there are any of those. Then I echo the completed result (as I have been doing), and you can view the final rtf.

Something like this:


//set $n to 1 initally (?)
$n = 1;

//append the FOO-style selections to the file

foreach ($_POST['FOO']) { 

  $n++;
  $write = "$n".". ".$FOO;

   } 

//append the Bar-style selections to the file

foreach ($_POST['BAR']) { 

  $n++;
  $write = "$n".". ".$BAR;

   } 

//append the BAZ-style selections to the file

foreach ($_POST['BAZ']) { 

  $n++;
  $write = "$n".". ".$BAZ;
   }

This is my idea now, and, naturally, it isn't going to work without a lot more banging on this machine (which I am happy to do), but does anyone have any advice as to the "correctness" of this method? Will the append feature ever work like I'm trying to get it to? Is my idea completely off?

Thanks!