Display Random File Data

Dysan

Hi,

How do I store a list of Firstnames & Surnames inside a .txt file, then using PHP, randomly display a persons full name (First + second name)?

Extremely Appreciated!

sneakyimp

Assuming your txt file is comma-separated text like this:

"joe", "blow"
"john", "doe"
"first name", "last name"

<?php
$maxLineLength = 1000; // set this large enough to be longer than any given line
$filename = 'textFile.txt'; // change this to point to your text file
$handle = fopen($filename, "r")
  or die('could not open file ' . $filename);
$lineCount = 0;
$allLines = array();
while (($line = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
    $allLines[$lineCount] = $line;
    $lineCount++;
}
fclose($handle);

$min = 0;
$max = $lineCount-1;
$n = rand($min, $max);
$lineChosen = $allLines($n);

echo 'the result is ' . $lineChosen[0] . ' ' . $lineChosen[1];
?>

Dysan

Why do I get the following error message?:

Fatal error: Function name must be a string in F:\Xampp\htdocs\ggg.php on line 17

sneakyimp

oops! change it to this:

$lineChosen = $allLines[$n];

Dysan

Is it possible to read two lines lines at a time from the file, but display them separately?

Lillefix

Use file() to read the file into an array, then read two and two values from the array.

laserlight

Is it possible to read two lines lines at a time from the file, but display them separately?

Yes, but why use a text file in the first place? Why not use an SQLite database with the PDO extension?