help in my fixed-width text file & php

[mfmondragon]

hi guys, id like to ask how can i do this:

1. the text file should be uploaded by the user (is there any codes you can provide)

2. i have a text files that is not comma-delimited, only fixed width. though basically i just need 2 - 3 fields to be imported to the database. (the reason why i need this because of the nature of legacy database we're using... btrieve, that's why i just rely to text files being generated)

here's the sample data:

XXXXX 1004567 I09890990 DELACRUZ, JUAN 01/09/06
XXXXX145 1004568 C09890990 DELACRUZ, JUAN 01/09/06
XXXXX890 1004569 I09890990 DELACRUZ, JUAN 01/09/06
XXXXX 1004575 C09890990 SANTOS, MARY GRACE 01/09/06

assuming that i need the records for the second & third column? how can i get those?

i hope you could help me... thanks!

[NogDog]

You can use the [man]substr/man function to grab each field.

[aksival]

Here is a pretty good file upload tutorial. You can also check out the 'Handling File Uploads' in the PHP manual.

But if you are just going to be uploading text files, it would be easier just to enter the data into a form field and submit it via POST (unless it has something to do with usability, which I can understand).

But anyways, if your data will always be space-delimited with consistent fields you can just explode each line using the space as a separator.

$line = "XXXXX 1004567 I09890990 DELACRUZ, JUAN 01/09/06";
$data = explode(" ", $line);

echo $data[0]; // Output: XXXXX
echo $data[1]; // Output: 1004567
echo $data[2]; // Output: I09890990
echo $data[3]; // Output: DELACRUZ,
echo $data[4]; // Output: JUAN
echo $data[5]; // Output: 01/09/06

Just watch out for names with spaces, like 'DE LA CRUZ' and 'MARY GRACE'...they will cause your fields to get messed up.

A more complex, but possibly more effective, method would be to use regular expressions -- but you'll have to ask one of the regex masters to assist you with that. Unfortunately I'm not one of them.

[mfmondragon]

hi thank you for all your help, but somehow i was able to solve my problem by one of forum members i joined in at oracle.com. here's my code based on his suggestion to use sscanf...

<?php

$fp = @fopen("studlist.txt", "r") or die("Couldn't open file");
$data = @fread($fp, filesize($fp));

while(!feof($fp))
{
$data .= @fgets($fp);
}

fclose($fp);
$values = explode("\r\n", $data);
foreach ($values as $val)
{
$read = sscanf($val,"%s %s %d %s %s %s");
if (count($read[2]) != 0 && count($read[5]) != 0)
{
// here i can have my php code inserting it's data to my database
// but for the meantime i will just echo the data i need to insert 🙂
echo $read[2]." - ".$read[5];
echo ("<br />");
}
}

?>

[aksival]

Just out of curiosity, how does sscanf() handle spaces in names/other strings?

[mfmondragon]

hi! aksival! i really don't know, and i'm still trying to figure it out.... 🙂 you know what i just used it accientally... im trying to use %24s just to look for 24 spaces... and for what i remember it did not do anything... so probably some guys could explain why... oops! before i forgot, there's a disadvantage of this... because for what i've tested if your trying to get this string: LA SALLE, JOHN S. and you're trying to get only LA SALLE, for some reason it will get LA SALLE, JOHN S. as a whole... well i'll try to make another test for this...

[aksival]

That's strange.

I'm still thinking regular expressions would be the most ideal way to go, because you could separate the dates/names/ID numbers given that their format is somewhat consistent.