[RESOLVED] Perform task based on date read from flat file ??

[Mad_T]

Hi

Please go easy I'm new 🙂

As per my subject I would like to perform a task based on today's date and vaules read from a flat file.

eg:

flat text file or csv containing every date of the year, descriptionA, decriptionB, and action.

[B]Date,DescA,DescB,Action[/B]
01/01/2009,open,only once,A
02/01/2009,closed,today,B
03/01/2009,limited,once,C 

This flat file would have every day listed, the decription is just a text field and the action could be A,B,C,D or E..

The script would run by a cron at midnight and check today's date, find the correct entry in the flat file and then store it's values.

If 'flatfile' action == A then DO THIS
else if 'flatfile action ==B then DO THAT

ETC..

Is that possible ?? can anyone give me any pointers ??

Thanks

[Weedpacket]

Yes. It's possible.

[man]fgetcsv[/man] can be used to read CSV files.

I'd recommend using a different date format - one that's easier to parse and/or work with. The international standard is yyyy-mm-dd. If you use [man]date[/man] to convert the present date into the same format, "2009-03-01" < "2009-03-11" as it should be.

[Mad_T]

Thanks..

I will change the dates to this 2009-03-11 format.

I've had a look at fgetcsv but can't see how I would search the CSV for the action based on the correct date..

Can you help ??

[big_nerd]

Someone feel free to correct me, but:

Modifying the example from: http://www.php.net/fgetcsv.

<?php
$row = 1;
$handle = fopen("file.csv", "r");
while (($data = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, ",")) !== FALSE) {
    $num = count($data); 
    if ($num < 4) { // Check to ensure there are 4 values
        echo "Invalid Data found in CSV file, incomplete";
    } 
    $run_date = $data[0];
    $descA = $data[1];
    $descB = $data[2];
    $action = $data[3];

   if ($run_date == date(Y-m-d)) {
     // Run $action;
   } // end if
} // end while
fclose($handle);
?>

Not sure if this will work for what you want... but should work, havn't tested it.

[Mad_T]

Thanks. Since my last post I had a play and found this..

<?php
$file = "data.csv";

  $_today = date("Y-m-d");
  echo $_today . "<br>";

  $file_content = file_get_contents ( $file );
  $file_arr = preg_split ( '/\n/' , $file_content );
  $found = false;

  foreach ( $file_arr as $item ) {
        $data = explode ( ',' , $item );
        if ( $data[0] === $_today ) {
              $found = true;                  
              $_action = $data[1];
        							}
  								 }
  if ( $found )   	
      	echo $_action;

		if ( $_action == A )
			DO THIS
		elseif ( $_action == B )
			DO THAT
		elseif ( $_action ==C )
			DO THIS BIT
		else
			echo "NOT WORKING";
			}
?>

This works and echo's the correct date ($today) and the correct action ($action).

But it fails at the if ( $_action ==A ) section.. I always get NOT WORKING...
Even though I can see the action is echoed as A, B or C..

Sample data.csv: ( I've decided to drop the descA & descB for now)

2009-03-11,A
2009-03-12,B
2009-03-13,A
2009-03-14,C
2009-03-15,B
2009-03-16,A
2009-03-17,A

If I run the page I get this as the output based on 2009-03-11

2009-03-11
A NOT WORKING

Where have I gone wrong ??
Thanks 🙂

[djjjozsi]

use apostrofe if you compare two value:

if ($a=='1')
echo "Do this";
elseif( $a=='2')
echo "Do this";
else
print "Nothing...";

And switchcase is a better way to make things depending from several cases.

[djjjozsi]

Where have I gone wrong ??

don't you think that using a database is a better way to handle events and properties in an organised way ? i think so.

in 3 lines you can reach the important events for today.

you can use import functions to feed the events (in phpyadmin)

if you want to modify something, its one click.

[Mad_T]

hmm.. changing to:

            if ($_action=='A')
                echo "DO THIS";
            elseif ($_action=='B')
                echo "DO THAT";
            elseif ($_action=='C')
                 echo "DO THIS BIT";
            else
                 echo "NOT WORKING"; 

Hasn't helped..

I still get :

2009-03-11
A NOT WORKING

Any ideas ?

[Mad_T]

djjjozsi;10906665 wrote:

don't you think that using a database is a better way to handle events and properties in an organised way ? i think so.

in 3 lines you can reach the important events for today.

you can use import functions to feed the events (in phpyadmin)

if you want to modify something, its one click.

I totally agree HOWEVER !!

This is being hosted on a device that has no DB support and no option to have it installed.

The csv file is 8KB and will only be changed 4 -6 times a year so manually editing it and ftp'ing it back is not an issue.

Thanks for the advise thou ! 🙂

[djjjozsi]

okay.
then make (date) folders with todo.txt files 🙂

if the today folder is exists, read the todo.txt.

[Mad_T]

Currently got it working with the exception of the If -- ElseIf statement

This is what I have that doesn't work !!

   if ($_action=='A')
                echo "DO THIS";
            elseif ($_action=='B')
                echo "DO THAT";
            elseif ($_action=='C')
                 echo "DO THIS BIT";
            else
                 echo "NOT WORKING"; 

I've tried:

			     switch ($_action) {
    				case "A":
        				echo "Action = A";
        				break;
    				case "B":
        				echo "Action = B";
        				break;
    				case "C":
				        echo "Action = C";
        				break;
        			default:
        				echo "NOT WORKING";
									}

Same doesn't work ? What have I got wrong ??

echo $_action; results in A, but both of the above return NOT WORKING.

Any ideas ??

[djjjozsi]

lets put the IF inside tha foreach cycle.

indent your code, and see where this foreach ends.

did you tried trim?

     [code=php]        switch (trim($_action)) {
                case "A":
                    echo "Action = A";
                    break;
                case "B":
                    echo "Action = B";
                    break;
                case "C":
                    echo "Action = C";
                    break;
                default:
                    echo "NOT WORKING";
                                }[/code]

[Mad_T]

SORTED 🙂

The output kept showing:

2009-03-11
A NOT WORKING

Yet I wasn't adding the space after the A or before the NOT WORKING.

So I added:

$_action = trim($_action);

Before the if statement and now it works !!

Thanks for your help.

[djjjozsi]

nice 🙂

jjozsi.