Simple question..I am sure...but I need help with it.

b_milby

I am fairly new to PHP and trying to work with a form on a website. I want it to write the data submitted to a TXT file and also email the information to a particular email address.

The email part is working perfect, and I can write the data to a text file, but the text in the file is being moved to a second line, therefore making it hard to import into Excel or Access. It has been moving the last four items to a second line.

Below is the code I have for the fields and for writing it to the text file:

<?php
$date = $POST['date'];
$time = $POST['time'];
$location = $POST['location'];
$serversname = $POST['serversname'];
$howgreeted = $POST['howgreeted'];
$friendly = $POST['friendly'];
$cleanliness = $POST['cleanliness'];
$quality = $POST['quality'];
$experience = $POST['experience'];
$like_others = $POST['like_others'];
$dined_with_us = $POST['dined_with_us'];
$recommend = $POST['recommend'];
$how_hear = $POST['how_hear'];
$dineindineout = $POST['dineindineout'];
$FullName = $POST['FullName'];
$Phone = $POST['Phone'];
$Email_address = $POST['Email_address'];
$snail_address = $POST['snail_address'];
$comments = $POST['comments'];
$drawing = $POST['drawing'];
if ($drawing) $qdraw = 'Yes';
else $qdraw = 'No';
$today = date("F j, Y, g:i a");

// Insert into the Text File
$data = "$date ; $time ; $location ; $serversname ; $howgreeted ; $friendly ; $cleanliness ; $quality ; $experience ; $like_others ; $dined_with_us ; $recommend ; $how_hear ; $dineindineout ; $FullName ; $Phone ; $Email_address ; $snail_address ; $comments ; $drawing ; $today";

//open the file and choose the mode
$fh = fopen("feedback.txt", "a");
fwrite($fh, $data);

//close the file
fclose($fh);

Any help anybody can provide would be grealy appreciated. I am sure it is something simple, but I have not been able to figure it out.

Thanks!

thorpe

It has been moving the last four items to a second line.

Not sure what you meen exactly. Could we maybe see some example data from the txt file?

b_milby

I apologize for any confusion.

Here is what's happening: when the data is written to the text file, it is moving the last four items ($snail_address, $comments, $drawing, $today) to a seperate line.

I have attached the text file, hopefully you will be able to view it.

remnant

Well, first of all, let's reduce all that redundant code...

Do this:

// Take the POST array and make it a semi-colon delimited string
$data = implode (" ; ", $_POST);
// Append the date and a newline character
$data .= " ; " . date("F j, Y, g:i a") . "\n";

//open the file and choose the mode
$fh = fopen("feedback.txt", "a");
fwrite($fh, $data);

//close the file
fclose($fh);

As for moving to the next line, i think this is a limitation of the text editor only displaying 255 characters per line then wrapping. I used wordpad and everything came in on line, using textpad it was wrapped...

b_milby

Wow, that code looks much better than mine...told you I was new to this!

The new code works fine as far as writing to the file, but the problem is still there with it going to a seperate line.

I have attached the text file after removing the redundant code.

b_milby

Sorry, I didn't read your whole post about the text wrapping. I am unable to view it in one line no matter what text editor I use.

The problem with it being on a seperate line is: when importing into Excel or Access, these programs are not seeing the delimiters correctly and placing the items on the second line into a new row of cells. So when I import the information, I have two rows for every submission.

thorpe

The problem seems to be in $_POST['snail_address']. I assume your using a textarea to let users enter there address in here. As they enter newlines, it is inserting them.

You might try...

$data = implode (" ; ", $_POST);
$data = str_replace('\n','',$data);

b_milby

Yep, that was it.

There is a text box for the entire address. I submitted the form without pressing 'Enter' and leaving the entire address on one line, and it worked fine.

I tried the code provided to maybe fix the problem, but that did not work, it went back to going to two lines.

I may just make a couple extra text boxes for City, State, and Zip.

Thanks for the help!

remnant

thorpe wrote:
The problem seems to be in $_POST['snail_address']. I assume your using a textarea to let users enter there address in here. As they enter newlines, it is inserting them.

You might try...
$data = implode (" ; ", $_POST);
$data = str_replace('\n','',$data);

Excellent observation, i'm sure that's it. You should also know that there are various ways to form line breaks and they depend on the OS the file was written in.

For HTML forms and database queries, it's usually just "\n"
but windows text files are \n\r while linus is simply \r and MacOS is something else altogehter.

I have even seen ^M from some Unix systems...

[EDIT]

Looks like you'll need str_replace("\r", "", $data); as well.

b_milby

Thanks guys. That is what was causing it.

I have tried the code you each provided and neither helps the problem. I have another text area that this is doing it to, $comments. Everything works fine as long as I do not press 'Enter' in the text area.

Here's my code right now:

// Take the POST array and make it a semi-colon delimited string
$data = implode (" ; ", $_POST);
$data = str_replace('\n',"",$data);
$data = str_replace("\r", "", $data);

// Append the date and a newline character
$data .= " ; " . date("F j, Y, g:i a") . "\n";

//open the file and choose the mode
$fh = fopen("feedback.txt", "a");
fwrite($fh, $data);

//close the file
fclose($fh);

Sorry to be such a pain!

[EDIT]

The text file is now on one line, but when I attempt to import it into Excel, it still sees the seperate lines and places everything in seperate columns

thorpe

Yeah... I always forget about that. Use...

$data = str_replace(array('\n\r','\n','\r'),'',$data);

b_milby

OK, here's my code...still no go. It is still moving to a new line each time I press the 'Enter' key in the textarea.

// Take the POST array and make it a semi-colon delimited string
$data = implode (" ; ", $_POST);
$data = str_replace(array('\n\r','\n','\r'),"",$data);

// Append the date and a newline character
$data .= " ; " . date("F j, Y, g:i a") . "\n";

//open the file and choose the mode
$fh = fopen("feedback.txt", "a");
fwrite($fh, $data);

//close the file
fclose($fh);

remnant

$data = str_replace(array('\n\r','\r\n','\n','\r'),'',$data);

// Use regular expression
$data = preg_replace("/(\r|\n)/", "", $data);

or, finally, you might try:

// Convert all line breaks to <br> tags
$data = nl2br ($data);

Depending on what you're doing with the data you could leave the <br>'s or str_replace them... not the best solution but it should work.

b_milby

The one below worked. All of the line breaks are being replaced and it's importing into Excel correctly.

// Use regular expression
$data = preg_replace("/(\r|\n)/", "", $data);

Thanks for everybody's input!