[SOLVED] Opening file, getting first two lines, modifiying file

[waiwai933]

How do I open a file using HTTP in PHP, of course, and get just the first two lines. This would be a txt file. Then, how would I open the same file in FTP, and delete the first two lines?

 

Thanks.

[flyhoney]

I would check out this page: http://us.php.net/file

<?php
// Get a file into an array.  In this example we'll go through HTTP to get
// the HTML source of a URL.
$lines = file('http://www.example.com/');

// Loop through our array, show HTML source as HTML source; and line numbers too.
foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) {
    echo "Line #<b>{$line_num}</b> : " . htmlspecialchars($line) . "<br />\n";
}

// Another example, let's get a web page into a string.  See also file_get_contents().
$html = implode('', file('http://www.example.com/'));

// Using the optional flags parameter since PHP 5
$trimmed = file('somefile.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES | FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES);
?>

 

Notice that this will only work if your server supports opening remote files with file.

 

Next, I would check out this article: http://forums.devshed.com/ftp-help-113/using-php-ftp-to-edit-a-file-on-a-remote-179877.html

 

<?php

$config = array(
    'ftp_user'  => '*****',
    'ftp_pass'  => '*****',
    'domain'    => 'example.com',
    'file'      => 'file.txt',       # relative to 'domain'
);

$fp = fopen($config['file'],'w');
fwrite($fp,stripslashes($_POST['newd']));
fclose($fp);

$ftp = ftp_connect($config['domain']);
ftp_login($ftp,$config['user'],$config['pass']);
ftp_put($ftp,$config['file'],$config['file'],FTP_ASCII);
ftp_close($ftp);
?>

[waiwai933]

Thank you so much. I just have a question regarding the first part. How do I get it so that it only takes X number of lines?

[trq]

You don't. But you can skip the first few iterations.

[waiwai933]

So I can't get it to just take the first two lines? Then how should I do it if I want the get the first line into a variable, and the second line into another variable, and so on? Preferably without the so on.

[trq]

Then how should I do it if I want the get the first line into a variable, and the second line into another variable, and so on?

 

This is what arrays are for, and this line....

 

$lines = file('http://www.example.com/');

 

Does exactly that. With each line going into an index within the $lines array.

[waiwai933]

I see, sort of. How would I call a specific number of an array?

[trq]

$lines[0] is the first line, $lines[1] the second etc etc.

[waiwai933]

Ok, thank you. That's that headache. Now, for the second piece of code, is it possible to strip just the first two lines instead of the whole thing?

 

And what does the $_POST['newd'] supposed to be?

[waiwai933]

Please help?

[flyhoney]

In that example, $_POST['newd'] is just whatever you want to write to the file.  Change that out with whatever you want.

[waiwai933]

I see. What if I just want to strip the first two lines? Would I use the existing query, and then just start with $lines[3] and on? If so, how would I make it go on forever, or at least until there are no more lines?

[waiwai933]

Could someone please help? I've tried to use array_shift, but that doesn't seem to work. Maybe I'm using it wrong?

[trq]

All you need do is setup a counter prior to your loop, then increment it as you iterate through the contents of the file. The first two iterations you would not save the content. eg;

 

$i = 0;
foreach (file('file.txt') as $line) {
  if ($i > 1) {
    $contents .= $line;
  }
  $i++;
}

 

Now you can store $contents into your file.

[flyhoney]

I don't really understand your question.  But if you are just trying to remove the first two lines:

<?php

$filename = 'file.txt';

// open remote file
$file_contents = file("http://www.example.com/$filename");

// remove first two lines
$file_contents = array_slice($file_contents, 2);

// rejoin lines in to one big file
$file_contents = implode('', $file_contents);

// ftp connection info
$ftp_user = '*****';
$ftp_pass = '*****';
$ftp_domain = 'example.com';

// connect to ftp, get ftp connection handle
$ftp = ftp_connect($ftp_domain);

// login to ftp
ftp_login($ftp, $ftp_user, $ftp_pass);

// write file to ftp
ftp_put($ftp, $filename, $file_contents, FTP_ASCII);

// close ftp connection
ftp_close($ftp);
?>

[waiwai933]

Thank you to both of you so, so much.