CSV read and write

Tezread

I have never had a situation before where my client does not want a database just text files with values that read/write data but I have now. There are going to be very few concurrent users and in spite of my efforts to sell the idea of a database (it's easier to setup!!) she is insistent.

So im stuck - on how to:

1) Have list menus which read values from files ages.dat and venues.dat:
2) Select the submitted age and venue and determine up and coming events (index.php)
3) Query events.dat file and return details for age and venue (details.php)
4) Display details.php allow user to select 1 event and allow user to enter number of places
5) Keep track of booking details and cost & serve up customer form cust.php
6) Enter customer payment details, validate and submit
7) Gert next booking number update events.dat (check availability first) & record in transaction file - increment booking number and send acknowlegdement

I have searched CSV read and write but having not done this before I am most confused

Here is the data in question:

ages.dat

A,Under 25
B,25 to 35
C,36 to 45

venues.dat

R,Tsari Night Club Ringwood
C,Peaches and Cream City
M,LJ's Mentone

booknum.dat

events.dat

1,AR,January 5 2007,7.00 pm,48,0,0
2,AR,February 10 2007,8.00 pm,48,1,1
3,AR,March 2 2007,7.00 pm,48,0,0
4,AR,March 14 2007,8.00 pm,45,8,12
5,AR,April 4 2007,7.00 pm,45,8,10
6,AR,April 28 2007,7.00 pm,48,6,4
7,AR,May 19 2007,8.00 pm,48,6,4
8,AR,June 2 2007,7.00 pm,48,0,0

In details.dat I have to store fields:
Bookingnum, familyname, title, address, suburb, email, creditcard, creditcardnum, etc

laserlight

Have you considered selling her the idea of SQLite? Fast embedded database engine that just needs one database file; it works particularly well with few concurrent users.

If you really have to use CSV, there is [man]fgetcsv/man and [man]fputcsv/man, but I am afraid I have no experience with either.

Tezread

It has to be CSV im afraid.

laserlight

From what I see, fgetcsv() would get you the CSV file such that you can access each row in a loop, much like what you would do for a database result set. Inserting rows should be easy by appending with fputcsv(), or you can format the lines yourself. Updating will probably be a pain though, since an fseek() followed by an overwrite may be error prone if you have to update with a smaller field.

In view of the data structures involved, my guess is that searching would not scale and would be relatively slow (linear search).