Jantz

Ok, I have this solved. With the help of you guys the final preg_match was : preg_match("/Data 1:\s\.{3}\s(.*?)\.{3}/s", $contents, $m); list(,$data['notes']) = $m; The reason why I was not able to insert into a mysql table is.... The $data['notes'] variable was only returning a value using get_file_contents('test.txt'); using a unix created source file with included carriage returns. This file was my test file for creating the script. My real world source txt files were generated on a Windows PC. Because of this I had to fix by doing the following: $contents = file_get_contents('my.txt'); $contents= str_replace("\r\n", "\n", $contents); This fixed the variable and allowed $data['notes'] to return a result and subsequently successfully be inserted into the database. All in all.... preg_match solved.... mysql INSERT solved. Many thanks to all.

Thanks very much I have a working preg_match solution for my intended (but not very well explained) purpose. You can see the final in the code below. I'm sure it looks very amateurish.. but it works for the most part thanks to your guidance. Now my problem is that although my matches all work, I have a mysql insert problem. All values get inserted correctly into the database except for $data['notes'] (matched from Data 1: chunk). This seems odd. Any ideas? No errors are displayed, and all other values are added to the record successfully. I can also confirm that $data['notes'] returns a result as I can echo successfully. --- <?php $contents = file_get_contents($my.txt); preg_match('/^id: (.+)/m', $contents, $m); list(,$data['id']) = $m; preg_match('/^name: (.+)/m', $contents, $m); list(,$data['name']) = $m; preg_match('/^vendor: (.+)/m', $contents, $m); list(,$data['vendor']) = $m; preg_match('/^vendor_url: (.+)/m', $contents, $m); list(,$data['vendorurl']) = $m; preg_match("/Data 1:\s\.{3}\s(.*?)\.{3}/s", $contents, $m); list(,$data['notes']) = $m; $w1 = $data['id']; $w2 = $data['name']; $w3 = $data['vendor']; $w4 = $data['vendorurl']; $w5 = $data['notes']; // Make a Connection mysql_connect("localhost", "user", "pass") or die(mysql_error()); mysql_select_db("test") or die(mysql_error()); // Insert into the table mysql_query("INSERT INTO table (id, name, vendor, vendorurl, notes) VALUES ('$w1','$w2','$w3','$w4','$w5')") or die(mysql_error()); ?> FYI - my text file that grab the data from ---my.text--- id: 1263294294 name: abc vendor: def vendor_url: www.abc.com Data 1: ... blah blah blah ... Data 2: ... blah2 blah2 blah2 ... ---my.text--- Thanks again. Hope no crystal balls this time. I'm trying...

ahh right. hmmm I think there must be more wrong than just the single quotes. Still not working. Thanks.

Hi cags, apologies, I'm quite new to this. What I am actually trying to do is return the data between found between designated start and end points in a text file. I am thinking along these lines: <?php $contents = file_get_contents('my.txt'); $start = 'Data 1:/n\.\.\.'; $end = '\.\.\.'; preg_match('/$start(.*)$end/s', $contents, $m); list(,$data['data1']) = $m; $start = 'Data 2:/n\.\.\.'; $end = '\.\.\.'; preg_match('/$start(.*)$end/s', $contents, $m); list(,$data['data2']) = $m; echo $data['data1']; echo $data['data2']; ?> My problem is being able to match the multi line pattern of the starting points. eg. Data 1: ... Hopefully I am making a little more sense now Thanks again.

Hi there, I was hoping someone could shed some light on how to preg_match multi line data patterns in a text file like below. Data 1: ... blah blah blah blah ... Data 2: ... blah2 blah2 blah2 blah2 ... i need to return the data chunks however I cannot seem to be able to match a $start pattern to include the data chunk label (eg. Data 1: followed by the 3 period dots on the line below). Any help would be most appreciated Thanks