Write PHP to find a word in a text file using a loop

Question

Write PHP script to search for a word in a text file (titled a.txt). Text file contains 50 words, each word is on 1 line. On the JavaScript side, a client types a random word in a text field and submits the word. The PHP script searches through the 50 words to find the correct word using a loop that runs until the word is found in the a .txt file. If the word is not found, an error message must appear stating that the word was not in the list.

The JavaScript part is correct but I'm having trouble with PHP:

$file = fopen("a.txt","r") or die("File does not exist in the current folder.");
$s = $_POST["lname"];
$x = file_get_contents("a.txt");
$a = trim($x);
if(strcmp($s, $a) == 0)
print("<h1>" . $_POST["lname"] . " is in the list</h1>");
else
print("<h1>" . $_POST["lname"] . " is not in the list</h1>");
fclose($file);
?>

I don'n understand your question in the code.. where are you searching the word?? You have to read the file, make an explode("\n", $string) for example, and then use a loop to find the word in the array generated by the loop. — adalpari
– adalpari, Commented Nov 30, 2012 at 19:40

Kartik · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 19:40:50Z

3

If it's only 50 words then just make an array out of it and check if it's in the array.

$file = file_get_contents('a.txt');
$split = explode("\n", $file);

if(in_array($_POST["lname"], $split))
{
    echo "It's here!";
}

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 19:40

Kartik

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Comments

Isaac · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 20:11:28Z

1

function is_in_file($lname) {
    $fp = @fopen($filename, 'r'); 
    if ($fp) { 
        $array = explode("\n", fread($fp, filesize($filename))); 
        foreach ($array as $word) {
            if ($word == $lname)
                return True;
        }
    }
    return False;
}

edited Nov 30, 2012 at 20:11

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 19:43

Isaac

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2 Comments

WhoaItsAFactorial Over a year ago

Any explination of what you are doing or why?

Isaac Over a year ago

That was the body of a function to perform the job. Added the signature.

adalpari · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 19:44:53Z

0

You are not searching the "word" into your code, but maybe the code below will help you

$array = explode("\n",$string_obtained_from_the_file);
foreach ($array as $value) {
    if ($value== "WORD"){
      //code to say it has ben founded
    }
}
//code to say it hasn't been founded

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 19:44

adalpari

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Comments

danishgoel · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 19:55:50Z

0

here is something fancy, regular expression :)

$s = $_POST["lname"];
$x = file_get_contents("a.txt");

if(preg_match('/^' . $s . '$/im', $x) === true){
    // word found do what you want
}else{
    // word not found, error
}

remove the i from '$/im' if you do not want to the search to be case-insensitive
the m in there tells the parser to match ^$ to line endings, so this works.

here is a working example : http://ideone.com/LmgksA

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 19:55

danishgoel

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Comments

Johnny Sparks · Accepted Answer · 2012-11-30 19:56:05Z

0

You actually don't need to break apart the file into an array if all you're looking for is a quick existence check.

$file = fopen("a.txt","r") or die("File does not exist in the current folder.");
$s = $_POST["lname"];
$x = file_get_contents("a.txt");

if(preg_match("/\b".$s."\b/", $x)){
    echo "word exists";
} else {
    echo "word does not exists";
}

This matches any word token in a string.

answered Nov 30, 2012 at 19:56

Johnny Sparks

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1 Comment

Courtney Brass Over a year ago

that would work...but i really need to use a loop to iterate through the 50 words that are contained in a text file. Each word is on a line. Do you have any idea how to do so?

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