Searching & Modifying Existing the names of files if needed

IamMine

Hello all!

I do have some experiences in programming such as Java and C++.

However, I'm new to PHP but the concepts are similar...and I am not really an expert with managing and updating files.

I'm stumped on solving this problem to create new files by appending numbers if the file already exists with a username.

For example, I log in as IamMine Lastname and my information is recorded from a script (this is done on a private island in Second Life that calls my php file on a apache server)

It will first look to see if the file, IamMine LastName.txt already exists. If not, then create a new file called IamMine LastName.txt.

The next time I am recorded (this could happen on the same day - I stop the recorder and then play it again, for example), I want the file to be renamed by appending a number at the end - like IamMine LastName_1 if filename already exists.

I am passing the username as a parameter for the filename; however I have to do a string search to find out if the file exists or if it does, then I have to do another search on finding the highest number so I can increment it by one before passing it to the fopen to create a new file. I know what you are thining - why not append? My supervisor wants a new log each time we interact with a recorder object. 🙂

Am I making any sense?

I've been trying to figure out what is the best way to work with this but it seems like I'm making it too complicated.

And I don't find the strcmp() effective.

Thanks for any inputs in advance. 🙂

Melissa

laserlight

You can use [man]glob/man to get the filenames, then perhaps [man]natsort/man the related filenames and increment based on the most recent file.

IamMine

That was really quick! 🙂

I am not familar with PHP so I am in diapers at this stage. 🙂

I'll look at glob() and natsort() and figure it out...

I'm not completely comfortable yet in coding (been years) and also managing files. 🙂

I hope it sorts by default because there may be 100 files under one user's name.

right now it looks like I can play with glob():

<? php
$filepath = "/home/usr/"
foreach (glob( $filepath + $username + "*.txt") as $filename)
{
echo $filename;
//store it in an array? to be sorted by natsort()

}

I got a lot of learning to do... and little time!!

Thank you so much for the quick response! This is a good place.... 🙂

laserlight

//store it in an array? to be sorted by natsort()

Yes, that is what I had in mind. Actually, you probably can just write:

$filenames = natsort(glob($filepath . $username . "*.txt"));

Now, end($filenames) will give you the most recently added filename, if my logic is correct. You then need to extract the number, if any, and increment it for your new filename. The extraction could be a simple case of doing a [man]str_replace/man of the path name to a blank, then casting the result to int.

IamMine

Thank you, laserlight for yet another quick response!

I'm trying to play with this now.

I'll take your additional suggestions and let you know how it went! 🙂

It may be a while though....

Aha, I noticed you used a period instead of "+" to concentrate the strings.

PHP takes the period to concencrate strings?

I know VB likes + while C likes & and I forgot what Java likes! 🙂

laserlight

Aha, I noticed you used a period instead of "+" to concentrate the strings.

PHP takes the period to concencrate strings?

Yes.

I know VB likes + while C likes & and I forgot what Java likes!

Actually, C likes strcat() and strncat() and Java likes + too.

IamMine

Oohhh....

I'm running into a problem here.

Hmm.

My directory is set at 755... i can create files there and so on... I had created a test file and chmod it 666.

But when I attempt to create a new file by calling the php, it would not create it.

How do you give a file permission upon creating one?

can we chmod it 666 while attempting to create a new file?

Sorry for getting off the track here, but I have to get that working first before getting ahead with the new code from here.

Thanks! 🙂

bradgrafelman

IamMine wrote:
How do you give a file permission upon creating one?

can we chmod it 666 while attempting to create a new file?

You can use [man]umask/man to change how the file will be created.