Find and replace

[Anon]

I have a file, which I want to edit ever so often. The text I want to edit however is unknow, hence this limits the ereg_replace. Example:
<!--start --> this is the information to edit, but is not always the same <!-- end --!>

Is there any way of doing this if I mark the start and ending of the text to find.

Vic

[Anon]

I haven't tried it, but maybe you could use php fast templates if the file needs to be regularly changed for content that is to be displayed on a webpage. Check it out here:

http://www.thewebmasters.net/

[Anon]

This is noet exactly what I'm trying to do. See the example already has a set content. I don't know what my content is going to be. I want to edit the file, but I don't know the string that I will edit. I could set pointers before and after the string but then what?

[Anon]

I'm still not exactly understanding why this needs to be done the way you're saying. Are you asking how to find and delete a string in a file on your machine and insert a new string in its place all with a PHP script? If this is the case, than I guess it is possible to do, but I can't think of any simple way to do it. Here's a way that immediately comes to mind, but you have to have PHP4 installed.

(Disclaimer: Never tried this or believe its the most efficient solution to your problem, but it would be neat if it actually worked.)

1)Mark the beginning of the text like you said.
2)Below that put your string (content).
3)After that on a newline mark the end of the content.
4)Read the entire file into an array with the file function.

The next few steps could be done in any number of ways. Here's a suggestion.

5)Find the index of the <start> and <end> tags from the array created in step 4.
6)Use the function array_slice twice to grab all the lines before you're marked content and after your marked content (be sure to get the marker tags also.
7)Read your new content into an array just like in step 4.
8)You now have three arrays. Use the function array_merge to combine all the arrays.
9)Now you have the edited file in an array which you can write back to a new file.
10)Delete the old file and rename the new file to the old name.

Let me know if you figure out a solution and how you did it. Good Luck.

[Anon]

Here's a better way. This solves the problem of not knowing what the actual content that is going to change looks like when using a regex.

1. Create a file that looks like this:

main.php

// Static content 1 here
<!-- start -->
// Dynamic content 1 here
<!-- end -->
// Static content 2 here

2. Create a file with new content:

new.txt

<!-- start -->
// Dynamic content 2 here
<!-- end -->

3. Create a temporary file:

temp.txt

4. Create the PHP script:

replace.php

<?php
// Open all three files
$fp = fopen("/home/main.php", "r");
$fp2 = fopen("/home/new.txt", "r+");
$fp3 = fopen("/home/temp.txt", "w+");

// Read the two files into a string
$m = fread($fp, filesize("/home/main.php"));
$n = fread($fp2, filesize("/home/new.txt"));

// Split the contents of main.html
// $array[0] contains Static content 1
// $array[1] contains Static content 2
$array = split("<!-- start -->(.*)<!-- end -->", $m);

// Now join the three separate strings
$new_string = $array[0].$n.$array[1];

// Write the new string to temp.txt
fwrite($fp3, $new_string);

/
temp.txt should look like this now
// Static content 1 here
<!-- start -->
// Dynamic content 2 here
<!-- end -->
// Static content 2 here
/

// Close the files
fclose($fp1);
fclose($fp2);
fclose($fp3);
?>

5. You can than write a forced cp call or something to copy temp.txt to main.html.

[Anon]

...or you could save a step and do:

$new_string = ereg_replace("<!-- start -->.*<!-- end -->", $n, $m);

[Anon]

Thank's a lot. You just made my life better. This is exactly what I needed. You are GOD!