Using PHP to take a .txt, parse specific lines and import into MySQL database

SchmittyJoe

Hey everyone,

For starters, I have limited knowledge of PHP & MySQL. Yes, a newbie at best. I apologize up front for not being in the know with lingo and jargon. Now that that is out of the way...

My main question is that of where do I start?

Here is my vision:

In my job I am constantly conducting weather related research that entails trying to figure out on X day, it was XX degrees at XX:XXpm. I had this bright idea of saying, isn't there a way that I can take data automatically and import it into a database somehow that I can then query for my results in seconds rather than surfing from one weather.com style website to the other?

So I have found all of the pieces of this puzzle. I can get the data easily (ftp) It is uploaded in the form a txt file. Not sure what the delimiter is, but I can say that the pertinent data starts on line 14. and goes from there. So how can I take that .txt file find the lines of data that I want and then import to MySQL automatically?

Mind you my end product should be a website that allows the user (me) to query the data base.

Suggestions?

Thx,
Joe

NogDog

The [man]file/man function will read a file into an array where each array element is one line from the file. You can then use [man]foreach/man to loop through the file, or in your case you might want to use a [man]for/man loop so that you can start at a specific line (remembering that the first line will be array index, 0, the 2nd line index 1, etc.).

Alternatively, you might find [man]fgetcsv/man a better option if the file is appropriately delimited (it doesn't necessarily have to be a comma delimiter).

SchmittyJoe

NogDog;10926073 wrote:
The [man]file/man function will read a file into an array where each array element is one line from the file. You can then use [man]foreach/man to loop through the file, or in your case you might want to use a [man]for/man loop so that you can start at a specific line (remembering that the first line will be array index, 0, the 2nd line index 1, etc.).

Alternatively, you might find [man]fgetcsv/man a better option if the file is appropriately delimited (it doesn't necessarily have to be a comma delimiter).

Nog, thanks for the info. I will look into this and see what happens. I am most def not looking for just the answer, or just someone to regurgitate code, thats the whole fun of this right? The challenge?

Too many people on these forums are just looking for someone to do their projects for them.

Posers.

Thanks again!