Use PHP to convert text file into array

Question

I have a text file here which I need to be able to convert into rows to extract the second, third, fourth, and fifth values from.

The first 7 values of each row are tab delimited, then there is a newline, then the final three values are tab delimited.

I removed the interrupting newlines so that each row is fully tab delimited.

<?php

$file="140724.txt";

$fopen = fopen($file, "r");

$fread = fread($fopen,filesize("$file"));

fclose($fopen);

$remove = "\n";

split = explode($remove, $fread);

foreach ($split as $string)
{
echo "$string<br><br>";
}

?>

Which produces this.

I'm not sure where to progress from this point. I'm teaching myself PHP and am still quite new to it, so I don't even know if where I've started from is a good place. My instinct is to write the previous output to a new textfile, then create another block of code similar to the first but exploding based on tabs, this time.

Help?

possible duplicate of How to create an array from a CSV file using PHP and the fgetcsv function — feeela
– feeela, Commented Jul 23, 2014 at 9:01
Classic example of why you shouldnt just put links in a question or answer as both links above are dead. — Craicerjack
– Craicerjack, Commented Jan 13, 2016 at 16:35

shaedrich · Accepted Answer · 2021-06-11 12:24:36Z

10

You can process this file in one go like this:

<?php
    $file="140724.txt";

    $fopen = fopen($file, 'r');

    $fread = fread($fopen,filesize($file));

    fclose($fopen);

    $remove = "\n";

    $split = explode($remove, $fread);

    $array[] = null;
    $tab = "\t";

    foreach ($split as $string)
    {
        $row = explode($tab, $string);
        array_push($array,$row);
    }
    echo "<pre>";
    print_r($array);
    echo "</pre>";
?>

The result will be a jagged array:

enter image description here

You will need to clean up the 1st and the last element.

edited Jun 11, 2021 at 12:24

shaedrich

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answered Jul 23, 2014 at 9:12

Artur Kedzior

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1 Comment

Priyal Over a year ago

I think $fopen = fopen($file, r); should be this --> $fopen = fopen($file, 'r'); r parameter as string otherwise it will throw a warning. good work.

feeela · Accepted Answer · 2014-07-23 09:00:01Z

1

That is structured data, delimited by tabs. You can use fgetcsv() to read that data into an array. For an example see the PHP documentation.

answered Jul 23, 2014 at 9:00

feeela

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5 Comments

peterpeterson Over a year ago

Just as an additional, tab delimiter is \t so as the third parameter of fgetcsv put '\t'

user3835015 Over a year ago

The original file has newlines in it, however, so it isn't purely tab delimited. Are you saying I should apply fgetcsv() to the output of my code block?

feeela Over a year ago

@Malignus Are you kidding me? Have you even tried to open the PHP documentation? OK, next step – read it.

GordonM Over a year ago

@feeela This is why it's a bad idea to try answering questions that the OP could have solved themselves with five minutes research :)

user3835015 Over a year ago

@GordonM I'm willing to admit that I spent two hours trying to find the right way to do this before coming here. Like I said, I'm new, and am trying to teach myself this. The PHP Manual cannot be read in five minutes, and it's not easy to navigate to the precise function that's most useful for what you want. I tried delimiting purely by tabs, first, but I got unwanted rows because the newlines were interrupting the data. I'll keep reading, as I have been. Thanks for what help's been offered.

user5707714 · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-22 14:51:53Z

0

<?php
$myfile = fopen("test.txt", "r") or die("Unable to open file!");
// Output one line until end-of-file
while(!feof($myfile)) {
    $text[] = fgets($myfile);
}
fclose($myfile);
print_r($text);
?>

answered Dec 22, 2015 at 14:51

user5707714

1

1 Comment

croxy Over a year ago

A little explanation of what your code is doing wouldn't hurt anyone.

Shivam Sharma · Accepted Answer · 2019-09-13 06:36:13Z

There is another answer here which converts file/raw strings into an associative array. It is really very handy in such cases.

function tab_to_array($src='', $delimiter=',', $is_file = true)
{
    if($is_file && (!file_exists($src) || !is_readable($src)))
        return FALSE;

    $header = NULL;
    $data = array();

    if($is_file){
        if (($handle = fopen($src, 'r')) !== FALSE)
        {
            while (($row = fgetcsv($handle, 1000, $delimiter)) !== FALSE)
            {
                if(!$header)
                    $header = $row;
                else
                    $data[] = array_combine($header, $row);
            }
            fclose($handle);
        }
    }
    else{
        $strArr = explode("\n",$src);
        foreach($strArr as $dataRow){
            if($row = explode($delimiter,$dataRow))
            {
                if(!$header)
                    $header = $row;
                else
                    $data[] = array_combine($header, $row);
            }
        }
    }

    return $data;
}
/**
 * Example for file
 */
print_r(tab_to_array('example.csv'));
/**
 * Example for raw string
 */
$str = "name    number
Lorem   11
ipsum   22";
print_r(tab_to_array($str, "\t", false));

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