Insert text before each line in txt file

[mnybud]

I have a very large text file, nearly 1 gig. I need to add some text before each line in the file.

So for example I have

 

1

2

3

4

 

and I simply want

 

a1

a2

a3

a4

 

I can do this in excel but since the file is so big it will have to be split into a million pieces in order to load and will take me forever.

Is there a way to do this in php easily?

 

[revraz]

You would have to read in the entire file, append the the text to each line, then rewrite the entire file.

[discomatt]

your best bet is to read in chunks

 

http://php.net/fread

 

then use str_replace( "\n", "\na" ); on the chunk

 

then append the chunk to a new file.

 

This will take a LONG time to execute, so use set_time_limit( 0 ), and possibly output flushing to give you an idea of the progress

[mnybud]

thanks!