JohnOlivier

Yeah.  I was trying an earlier post's suggestion and forgot to change it back.  Your code works like a charm.  Thank you very much for all the help.  You are a life saver.

Ken great post but I encounter the following: The output as coded is: Array (     [eggs,1000] =>     [milk,1] =>     [bread,1000] => ) Array (     [eggs,1] =>     [milk,1000] =>     [bread,1] => ) Buy eggs from vendor one Buy milk from vendor one Buy bread from vendor one I would like it to look like: Array (     [eggs] => 1000     [milk] => 1     [bread] => 1000 ) Array (     [eggs] => 1     [milk] => 1000     [bread] => 1 ) Buy eggs from vendor two Buy milk from vendor one Buy bread from vendor two

Thanks!  I'll definately check out the fgetcsv function.  It looks pretty promising for loading the vendor arrays. I fixed my boneheaded error that you pointed out with the variable name and still no luck. The code as it stands now is: <?php $fp1  = 'needs'; $fp2  = 'vendor1'; $fp3  = 'vendor2'; $needs = array(); $vItems1 = array(); $vItems2 = array(); if ($vendor1 = @file ($fp2)) { foreach ($vendor1 as $v1) { $tempArray = explode("\t", $v1); $item = $tempArray[0]; $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1)); $vItems1[$item] = $price; } } else echo "Could not find your first vendor! <br>"; if ($vendor2 = @file ($fp3)) { foreach ($vendor2 as $v2) { $tempArray = explode("\t", $v2); $item = $tempArray[0]; $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1)); $vItems2[$item] = $price; } } else echo "Could not find your second vendor! <br>"; if ($needs = @file ($fp1)) { foreach($needs as $need) { if($vItems1[$need] > $vItems2[$need]) echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor two. <br>"; else echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor one. <br>"; } } else echo "Could not find a list of your current inventory need! <br>"; php?>

Thanks for the input, but I have already tried with just one $.  That was my initial guess, and it behaves the exact same way (not sure why).  I'll give the print_r() function a shot and see what my arrays are holding.  Thanks for the info. [b]UPDATE:[/b] [i]Output of print_r() on arrays:[/i] needs    = Array ( [0] => eggs [1] => milk [2] => bread ) vendor1 = Array ( [0] => eggs 1000 [1] => milk 1 [2] => bread 1000 ) vendor2 = Array ( [0] => eggs 1 [1] => milk 1000 [2] => bread 1 ) It seems my keys are not being set properly.  I would like eggs to be a key not the number 0, etct... Any thought on how to do this?

Hello All, Any help regarding the following matter would be much appreciated. I am having a vexing problem.  I am new to PHP (about 3 or 4 days now), and I am having a problem doing what I would imagine would be very simple to accomplish in a language like C++. I have three files: 1.  A list of needs 2.  A vendor and the cost for these needs 3.  Another vendor and the cost for these needs So here is the idea.  I read all the needs into an array.  I then read all the vendor offerings and store them into two seperate arrays.  The key's of the array are what they are supplying and the values are the prices of the product.  Now I would like to index the vendor arrays with my needs, compare who is cheaper, and output the response to my user. I used two sample files where the vendor 1 wins some and vendor 2 wins some.  However, the code that follows does not accurately tell which vendor to use.  It always allows vendor 1 to win.  I am super confused. Please note that the following code is very "simple".  I am making the mother of all assumptions, that I have perfect input and a perfect user.  I do no error checking other than the files being there. Before, or after, reviewing the following input files and code you can see what is going on at: [url=http://www.latech.edu/~jdo017/kings/process.php]http://www.latech.edu/~jdo017/kings/process.php[/url] [b] INPUT FILES:[/b] [i] Needs:[/i] eggs milk bread [i]Vendor1:[/i] eggs 1000 milk 1 bread 1000 [i] Vendor2:[/i] eggs 1 milk 1000 bread 1 [b]CODE SNIPPET:[/b] <?php $fp1  = 'needs'; $fp2  = 'vendor1'; $fp3  = 'vendor2'; $vItems1 = array(); $vItems2 = array(); if ($vendor1 = @file ($fp2)) {   foreach ($vendor1 as $v1)   {       $tempArray = explode("\t", $v1);       $item = $tempArray[0];       $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1));       $vItems1[$item] = $price;   } } else   echo "Could not find your first vendor! ";     if ($vendor2 = @file ($fp3)) {   foreach ($vendor2 as $v2)   {       $tempArray = explode("\t", $v2);       $item = $tempArray[0];       $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1));       $vItems2[$item] = $price;   } } else   echo "Could not find your second vendor! ";   if ($needs = @file ($fp1)) {   foreach($needs as $need)   {       if($vItems1[$$need] > $v2tems1[$$need])         echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor two. ";       else         echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor one. ";   } } else   echo "Could not find a list of your current inventory need! "; echo $ip; php?>

Needs File Looks Like: eggs bread milk Vendor1 eggs  "tab"  1000 bread "tab"  1 milk  "tab"  1000 Vendor1 eggs  "tab"  1 bread "tab"  1000 milk  "tab"  1 I know these are ridiculous values.  Also the dumb little tab I inserted is an actual tab, and I have a return after the last item in each file.

Hello All, Any help regarding the following matter would be much appreciated. I am having a vexing problem.  I am new to PHP (about 3 or 4 days now), and I am having a problem doing what I would imagine would be very simple to accomplish in a language like C++. I have three files: 1.  A list of needs 2.  A vendor and the cost for these needs 3.  Another vendor and the cost for these needs So here is the idea.  I read all the needs into an array.  I then read all the vendor offerings and store them into two seperate arrays.  The key's of the array are what they are supplying and the values are the prices of the product.  Now I would like to index the vendor arrays with my needs, compare who is cheaper, and output the response to my user. I used two sample files where the vendor 1 wins some and vendor 2 wins some.  However, the code that follows does not accurately tell which vendor to use.  It always allows vendor 1 to win.  I am super confused. Please note that the following code is very "simple".  I am making the mother of all assumptions, that I have perfect input and a perfect user.  I do no error checking other than the files being there. CODE SNIPPET: <?php $fp1  = 'needs'; $fp2  = 'vendor1'; $fp3  = 'vendor2'; $vItems1 = array(); $vItems2 = array(); if ($vendor1 = @file ($fp2)) { foreach ($vendor1 as $v1) { $tempArray = explode("\t", $v1); $item = $tempArray[0]; $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1)); $vItems1[$item] = $price; } } else echo "Could not find your first vendor! <br>"; if ($vendor2 = @file ($fp3)) { foreach ($vendor2 as $v2) { $tempArray = explode("\t", $v2); $item = $tempArray[0]; $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1)); $vItems2[$item] = $price; } } else echo "Could not find your second vendor! <br>"; if ($needs = @file ($fp1)) { foreach($needs as $need) { if($vItems1[$$need] > $v2tems1[$$need]) echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor two. <br>"; else echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor one. <br>"; } } else echo "Could not find a list of your current inventory need! <br>"; /*$banned_array = $this->banned_array; $ip = trim($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']); $cpu = gethostbyaddr($ip);*/ echo $ip; php?>