[PHP] problem writing to a flat-text file

**totenmaske** · 03-12-2006, 01:03 AM

I'm tweaking an existing script that allows me to input information like a URL and TITLE to a flat-file but when I attempt to customize the script to write a DESC (description) to the file the field gets filled with a value called "Array".

Code:

$lfile = fopen("data.dat", "w");
 foreach ($site as $num=>$href) {
if($href!= "" && $text[$num]!= "" && $desc!= "") {
 $daysstart = "";
 $daysremaining = "";
 if(trim($sdays[$num])!= "") { $daysstart = formatdays($sdays[$num]); }
 if(trim($edays[$num])!= "") { $daysremaining = formatdays($edays[$num]); }
 fwrite($lfile, $href . "¦¦¦" . $text[$num] . "¦¦¦" . $desc . "¦¦¦" . $daysstart . "¦¦¦" . $daysremaining . "\n");
}
 }
 fclose($lfile);

Any ideas?
...thanks in advance for any assistance.

**Bob** · 03-12-2006, 07:45 AM

Where and how is $desc being defined/initialized? The code thinks $desc is an array.

Post those line(s) of code where $desc is initialized.

Alternatively, you can check to see what is in $desc[0]. $desc[1]. $desc[2], etc, and see if what you need is in one of those elements.

-Bob

**Beachie** · 03-12-2006, 08:16 AM

Bob is bang on the money there, and if $desc is an array, the if (...$desc!= "") won't be working quite how you intend either..

**Bob** · 03-12-2006, 08:21 AM

Originally Posted by Beachie

and if $desc is an array, the if (...$desc!= "") won't be working quite how you intend either..

Beachie is bang on the money too.

You will need to do something like:

. . . if($desc[0] != "") . . .

-Bob

**totenmaske** · 03-12-2006, 11:55 AM

First, thanks to bob and beachie for their replies.

Here is the rest of the code:

Code:

<?php

 session_start();
 if(isset($_POST['pass'])) { $_SESSION['admin'] = $_POST['pass']; }

 if($_SESSION['admin'] != "newpass") {
   login();
   return 0;
 }


 if($_POST['dowhat'] == "write") {
   $site = $_POST['site'];
   $text = $_POST['text'];
   $desc = $_POST['desc'];
   $sdays = $_POST['sdays'];
   $edays = $_POST['edays'];

   $lfile = fopen("data.dat", "w");
   foreach ($site as $num=>$href) {
	if($href != "" && $text[$num] != "" && $desc != "") {
	  $daysstart = "";
	  $daysremaining = "";
	  if(trim($sdays[$num]) != "") { $daysstart = formatdays($sdays[$num]); }
	  if(trim($edays[$num]) != "") { $daysremaining = formatdays($edays[$num]); }
	  fwrite($lfile, $href . "|||" . $text[$num] . "|||" . $desc  . "|||" . $daysstart . "|||" . $daysremaining . "\n");
	}
   }
   fclose($lfile);
 } 
?>
 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
   <title>Title Here</title>
  </head>

  <body><br />
    <form method="post">

  <div align="center">
    <div id="manager" align="center">
     <table border="0" cellspacing="5" cellpadding="5">
      <tr>
	<td width="20%"><strong>URL</strong></td>
	<td width="20%"><strong>Title</strong></td>
	<td width="30%"><strong>Description</strong></td>
	<td width="15%"><strong>Start</strong></td>
	<td width="15%"><strong>Remain</strong></td>
      </tr>
<?php
 $lines = file('links.cgi');
 $num = 0;
 foreach ($lines as $line) {
  $data = explode("|||", $line);
  $syear = substr($data[3],0,4);
  $sday = substr($data[3],4);
  $eyear = substr($data[4],0,4);
  $eday = substr($data[4],4);
  $daysstart = "";
  $daysremaining = "";
  if(trim($data[3]) != "") { $daysstart = formatcode($syear,$sday); }
  if(trim($data[4]) != "") { $daysremaining = formatcode($eyear,$eday); }

  echo "<tr>\n<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"site[]\" value=\"$data[0]\"></td>";
  echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"text[]\" value=\"$data[1]\"></td>";
  echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"desc[]\" value=\"$data[2]\"></td>";
  echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"sdays[]\" id=\"s" . $num . "\" value=\"" . $daysstart . "\" size=\"2\"></td>";
  echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"edays[]\" id=\"e" . $num . "\" value=\"" . $daysremaining . "\" size=\"2\"></td>\n</tr>";
  $num++;
 }
?>
       <tr>
	<td><input type="text" name="site[]" value=""></td>
	<td><input type="text" name="text[]" value=""></td>
	<td><input type="text" name="desc[]" value=""></td>
	<td><input type="text" name="sdays[]" id="s<?php echo $num ?>" value="" size="2"></td>
	<td><input type="text" name="edays[]" id="e<?php echo $num ?>" value="" size="2"></td>
      </tr>
     </table>
     <input type="hidden" name="dowhat" value="write">
     <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Submit">
     </form>
   </div>
   </div>
  </body>
</html>



<?php

function login() {
?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
   <title>Link Manager Login</title>
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="layout.css" />
   <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="presentation.css" />
  </head>


<body>
<br /><br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center">
<div id="links">
<form method="post">
Please Login: <input type="text" name="pass">
<input type="submit" value="Login">
</form>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>
</html>

<?php
}

function formatdays($daystogo) {
  $ryear = date("Y");
  $rday = date("z");

  $rday += $daystogo;

  while($rday > 364) {
    $rday -= 365;
    $ryear++;
  }

  return ($ryear . $rday);
}

function formatcode($year, $day) {
  $ryear = date("Y");
  $rday = date("z");
  $daysleft = "";

  if($ryear == $year) { $daysleft =  $day - $rday; }
  else { 

	$rday = 364 - $rday;
	$ryear++;

	while($ryear < $year) {
	   $rday = 365 + $rday;
	   $ryear++;
	}
	$daysleft = ($rday + $day) + 1;
  }

  return ($daysleft);
}
?>

Thank you all for your assistance, I really don't understand a lot of this stuff but generarally I can play around with the code enough to get it to do what I want. In this case I added all the "desc" stuff and formatted it exactly like the existing code and it works fine except when writing the data to the file. I can manually insert the data into "data.dat" and the PHP file reads it correctly; however the minute I save the data all the "desc" values in the "data.dat" file get overwritten with the value "Array"...

**Bob** · 03-12-2006, 02:29 PM

The error is caused by this line:

PHP Code:

 echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"desc[]\" value=\"$data[2]\"></td>";

The problem are the brackets in the name field: name=\"desc[]\"

When you use brackets like this, the information is passed back to the PHP script as an array.

There are two ways to fix this:

1) Remove the [] after "desc" and make the line:

PHP Code:

 echo "<td><input type=\"text\" name=\"desc\" value=\"$data[2]\"></td>";

2) You can simply extract the data from the 0th element of the array and write the extracted value to the text file (or simply write the 0th element to the text file).

example:

PHP Code:

 $siteDescription = $data[0];
fwrite($lfile, $href . "|||" . $text[$num] . "|||" . $siteDescription  . "|||" . $daysstart . "|||" . $daysremaining . "\n");

or more simply:

PHP Code:

 fwrite($lfile, $href . "|||" . $text[$num] . "|||" . $desc[0]  . "|||" . $daysstart . "|||" . $daysremaining . "\n");

Personally, I would approach it from #2. You really should not mess with the HTML names in case something else is going on somewhere where the PHP is looking for that array name. You run the risk of breaking it in another place.

Cheers!

-Bob