[RESOLVED] NEED HELP SORTING DIRECTORY LIST

DaleRobbins

This code below lists all the text files in a directory. Each text file consists of a double pipe || delimited line of data. It pulls the values from field 7 and 2 and hyperlinks to the url filename. Basically, I need to sort the list by file date... (the most recent first), but haven't been able to do this successfully.


$i=0;
$path="../entries/";// path of the file

$handle=opendir($path);

while (($file_name = readdir($handle))!==false) {

if(stristr($file_name,".txt")){
$url=$path.$file_name;


$contents="";
$fd = fopen ($url, "r"); // opening the file in read mode
while($buffer = fread ($fd,1024)){
$contents .= $buffer;
}

$url = str_replace($path, "", $url);
$pieces = explode("||", $contents);
echo " <a href=\"readperm.php?$url\">$pieces[7]</a> - $pieces[2]";
echo "<br>\n";

$i=$i+1;
}
}
echo $i;

DaveRandom

<?php

$path="../entries/"; // path of the file 

$handle=opendir($path); // Open the dir as a pointer

$sort = $data = array(); // array of files to sort/data about the files

for  ($i=0; ($file_name = readdir($handle)) !== false; $i++) { // Loop through the directory

  if (strtolower(substr($file_name,-4)) == ".txt") {  // the file extensions is .txt

// $url = $path.$file_name; - this line is pointless (see below)

// get the file into a string (could use file_get_contents() if this is for PHP5)
$contents=""; 
$fd = fopen ($path.$file_name, "r"); // opening the file in read mode 
while (!feof($fd)) $contents .= fread($fd,1024);

// $url = str_replace($path, "", $url);  - this line is unecessary ($url is the same as $file_name after this line)

$pieces = explode("||", $contents); // split the file by delimiter '||'

// put the data into an array, making sure not duplicate keys and lose a file
$sort["item_$i"] = filemtime($path.$file_name);
$data["item_$i"] = array('url'=>$file_name,'lnktxt'=>$pieces[7],'extra'=>$pieces[2]);

  } // end if

} // end for 

asort($sort); // work out the sorted order

foreach ($data as $key => $vals) echo " <a href=\"readperm.php?".$vals['url']."\">".$vals['lnktxt']."</a> - ".$vals['extra']."<br>\n"; // print the links

echo $i; 

?>

DaleRobbins

Thank you for taking the time to assist... I really appreciate it. However, while the files in the directory are displayed, I am still am unable to get them to sort "by file date". I need the list to display the files by most recent file added.

Here's a sample of the data in a textfile. Each file contains one line of delimited fields as shown:

5||Public Announcements||2011-01-28 14:22:26||John Does||800-123-4567||jdoe@bigtime.com||[url]http://www.cnn.net||SPECIAL[/url] ANNOUNCEMENT TO ALL GEEKS||This is a test of the content of this message.||New York||74.11.86.212||1296249746||

bradgrafelman

Why aren't you using a DBMS for this data instead?

DaleRobbins

I'm just attempting to modify an already existing program. I don't have the option of using mysql or anything else.

DaveRandom

So the date by which you need to sort them is in the third field of the file?

5||Public Announcements||2011-01-28 14:22:26||John Does||

DaleRobbins

That would work ok... but actually I was thinking that something like filetime might work. These aren't files that will be edited... so the file creation/modified date will remain the same. Just not sure how to sort according to it.

DaveRandom

Assuming that the last field (11) is the unix timpestamp by with you want to sort the files - and I imagine it will be - you can just replace

$sort["item_$i"] = filemtime($path.$file_name);

with

$sort["item_$i"] = (int) $pieces[11];

in my code above and it should do the trick.

Also, you will need to call array_reverse() after asort() to get them in order of newest first, sorry I missed that in the original post.

For anyone who is wondering, the reason I have used 2 arrays, $data and $sort, is to avoid collisions in array keys where the timestamp is the same in two files.

DaveRandom

D'oh!!

Just notice my mistake in the original code! I blame the cat...

Here is the correct version:

<?php 

$path="../entries/"; // path of the file 

$handle=opendir($path); // Open the dir as a pointer 

$sort = $data = array(); // array of files to sort/data about the files 

for  ($i=0; ($file_name = readdir($handle)) !== false; $i++) { // Loop through the directory 

  if (strtolower(substr($file_name,-4)) == ".txt") {  // the file extensions is .txt 

// $url = $path.$file_name; - this line is pointless (see below) 

// get the file into a string (could use file_get_contents() if this is for PHP5) 
$contents=""; 
$fd = fopen ($path.$file_name, "r"); // opening the file in read mode 
while (!feof($fd)) $contents .= fread($fd,1024); 

// $url = str_replace($path, "", $url);  - this line is unecessary ($url is the same as $file_name after this line) 

$pieces = explode("||", $contents); // split the file by delimiter '||' 

// put the data into an array, making sure not duplicate keys and lose a file 
$sort["item_$i"] = filemtime($path.$file_name); 
$data["item_$i"] = array('url'=>$file_name,'lnktxt'=>$pieces[7],'extra'=>$pieces[2]); 

  } // end if 

} // end for 

asort($sort); // work out the sorted order 

$sort = array_reverse($sort); // Reverse order so newest is first

foreach ($sort as $key => $trash) echo " <a href=\"readperm.php?".$data[$key]['url']."\">".$data[$key]['lnktxt']."</a> - ".$data[$key]['extra']."<br>\n"; // print the links 

echo $i; 

?>

DaleRobbins

Thank you for being so kind to help! This works perfectly. You are a much better programmer than your cat! Ha

DaveRandom

DaleRobbins;10973406 wrote:
You are a much better programmer than your cat!

I know, doesn't matter what I ask her to do, she always comes up with this same thing:

  while (TRUE) {
    if (!food_exists()) {
      annoy($owner);
    }
    while (food_exists()) {
      eat($food);
    }
  }