Flatfile Formatting

[jaimeschu]

Hi,

I am not even sure where to post this, so please excuse the randomness. Anyway, I am dealing with using form data and writing it to a flat text file. Everything works as it should, except that I am having issues mapping the data where I want it to go in the text file. For example, I want the information from the first name field to start at position 1, and I want last name information to start at position 30, no matter what. I have been looking everywhere. Anyone have a clue for me? ??? Many thanks in advance.

[mattal999]

We need to see some code, otherwise we can't see where you're going wrong.

 

Post the code for your submission and the form where you get the data from please.

[rhodesa]

you will want to do something like this:

$first_name = str_pad(substr($first_name,0,30),30);

substr() will shorten it if it's too long, then str_pad() will add whitespace to the right side to fill it to 30

[MatthewJ]

Try searching for tips/tutorials on "fixed width" text files. I would guess though that most suggestions will look like the one by rhodesa.

[jaimeschu]

THANK YOU! that may have done the trick. I ran a test on one line and so far so good. I will let you know how it all pans out. Thanks again for your quick response. I had been googling for days.