[RESOLVED] more efficient way to loop using switch?

generic

I'm working on a product catalog, so to speak, and in it, I need to grab the product line ($line) from the url and display the appropriate bit of data, which I've got it doing. Right now, it's set up something like this:

<?php
// get $line (product line) from url
$line=$_GET['line'];

switch($line) {
case "product_1" :?>
              <h3>Product Number 1</h3>
              <p>blah...</p>

<?php break; case "product_2" :?>
              <h3>Product Number 2</h3>
              <p>blah as well...</p>

etc...
?>

This all works well for me. However, I thought it might be easier to load the product data into each case by looping through a pipe delimited flat file (I unfortunately don't have access to mysql), something like:

1|product_1|Product Number 1|blah...
2|product_2|Product Number 2|blah as well...
etc...

Is there a more efficient way to do this?

Thanks in advance,

gen

laserlight

However, I thought it might be easier to load the product data into each case by looping through a pipe delimited flat file

Yes, since it is more flexible as you separate the data from the business logic.

I unfortunately don't have access to mysql

Why not? Perhaps you have access to Postgresql, or more likely SQLite?

What you want to do can be accomplished with things like [man]file/man and [man]explode/man, or you could use a CSV file with [man]fgetcsv/man, but a relational database may be the best option.

generic

I completely agree about using relational database, but the problem is that there are no available databases left for me to use on the server I have access to, so I'm very limited in resources - it pretty much has to be a flat file db or have the data written right into each case.

I think I can manage putting together the reading of the file and looping but how do I incorporate the switch statements in between each iteration of the loop?

Be gentle, I'm no programmer - I'm more of a graphic artist 🙂

Thanks!

laserlight

I completely agree about using relational database, but the problem is that there are no available databases left for me to use on the server I have access to, so I'm very limited in resources - it pretty much has to be a flat file db or have the data written right into each case.

SQLite is designed to be a substitute for flat file databases (and indeed each SQLite database is just one file). Consequently, it is not very good when concurrent access is needed like in a high traffic website, but chances are your own flat file database system will do much worse, and you will have to implement all the algorithms yourself too, and pray that you get them right.

I think I can manage putting together the reading of the file and looping but how do I incorporate the switch statements in between each iteration of the loop?

Once you have read from the flat file database into an array, it is no longer a matter of using switch/case, but a matter of searching the array to find the element that has the correct key (i.e., the row/element with the corresponding product line).

generic

Ok, that worked out. I don't know why I didn't think of that in the first place 🙂

Thanks a bunch!

gen