JohnOlivier Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 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 needs2. A vendor and the cost for these needs3. Another vendor and the cost for these needsSo 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]eggsmilkbread[i]Vendor1:[/i]eggs 1000milk 1bread 1000[i]Vendor2:[/i]eggs 1milk 1000bread 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?> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaellunsford Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 maybe it's just me, but the $$need has one too many $'s in front. That just might make PHP freak out.Let me know if that fixes it or not. If not, in the interim, you could print_r() all of your arrays to make sure they're properly populated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnOlivier Posted October 10, 2006 Author Share Posted October 10, 2006 Thanks for the input, but I have already tried with just one $. That was my initial guess, and it behaves the exact same way (not sure why). I'll give the print_r() function a shot and see what my arrays are holding. Thanks for the info.[b]UPDATE:[/b][i]Output of print_r() on arrays:[/i]needs = Array ( [0] => eggs [1] => milk [2] => bread )vendor1 = Array ( [0] => eggs 1000 [1] => milk 1 [2] => bread 1000 )vendor2 = Array ( [0] => eggs 1 [1] => milk 1000 [2] => bread 1 )It seems my keys are not being set properly. I would like eggs to be a key not the number 0, etct...Any thought on how to do this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaellunsford Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 back on the if statement [code=php:0]if($vItems1[$need] > $v2tems1[$need])[/code]your original variable is $vItems2, not $v2Items1. That might be it too.The problem you're having on your last post is you're print_r $vendor1 and $vendor2, which is the contents of the original file -- not your exploded content.You also might be able to simplify your code using getcsv().http://usphp.com/manual/en/function.fgetcsv.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnOlivier Posted October 10, 2006 Author Share Posted October 10, 2006 Thanks! I'll definately check out the fgetcsv function. It looks pretty promising for loading the vendor arrays.I fixed my boneheaded error that you pointed out with the variable name and still no luck.The code as it stands now is:<?php$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?> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenrbnsn Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 I found a few other errors and places where the code could be tightened:[list][*]When you read the lines into the arrays they contain the newline character at the end, so you should use the [url http://www.php.net/trim]trim()[/url] function to remove that character. I think you were trying to remoe that character with this line: [/list][code]<?php $price = substr($tempArray[1], 0, (strlen($tempArray[1])-1)); ?>[/code]. If you explode() the trimed line, you don't need that line, but can use [code]<?php $price = $tempArray[1] ?>[/code] instead.[*]I replaced this code chuck:[code]<?php foreach($needs as $need) { if($vItems1[$need] > $vItems2[$need]) echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor two."; else echo "Buy " . $need . " from vendor one."; }?>[/code]with[code]<?php foreach($needs as $need) { $wvendor = ($vItems1[trim($need)] > $vItems2[trim($need)])?'two':'one'; echo 'Buy ' . trim($need) . ' from vendor ' . $wvendor . '<br>'; }?>[/code][list][/list]Here is my version of your code (with the debug print_r statements left in):[code]<?php$fp1 = 'needs.txt';$fp2 = 'vendor1.txt';$fp3 = 'vendor2.txt'; $vItems1 = array();$vItems2 = array();if ($vendor1 = @file ($fp2)){ foreach ($vendor1 as $v1) { $tempArray = explode("\t", trim($v1)); $item = $tempArray[0]; $price = $tempArray[1]; $vItems1[$item] = $price; } echo '<pre>' . print_r($vItems1,true) . '</pre>';}else echo "Could not find your first vendor!"; if ($vendor2 = @file ($fp3)){ foreach ($vendor2 as $v2) { $tempArray = explode("\t", trim($v2)); $item = $tempArray[0]; $price = $tempArray[1]; $vItems2[$item] = $price; } echo '<pre>' . print_r($vItems2,true) . '</pre>';}else echo "Could not find your second vendor!"; if ($needs = @file ($fp1)){ foreach($needs as $need) { $wvendor = ($vItems1[trim($need)] > $vItems2[trim($need)])?'two':'one'; echo 'Buy ' . trim($need) . ' from vendor ' . $wvendor . '<br>'; }}else echo "Could not find a list of your current inventory need!";?>[/code]Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnOlivier Posted October 10, 2006 Author Share Posted October 10, 2006 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 oneBuy milk from vendor oneBuy bread from vendor oneI would like it to look like:Array( [eggs] => 1000 [milk] => 1 [bread] => 1000)Array( [eggs] => 1 [milk] => 1000 [bread] => 1 )Buy eggs from vendor twoBuy milk from vendor oneBuy bread from vendor two Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kenrbnsn Posted October 10, 2006 Share Posted October 10, 2006 You changed the format of the input files. My code is based on your original post where the delimiter in each line was the tab character. It seems you changed that to a comma.Change this line:[code]<?php $tempArray = explode("\t", trim($v1)); ?>[/code]to[code]<?php $tempArray = explode(',', trim($v1)); ?>[/code]Ken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnOlivier Posted October 10, 2006 Author Share Posted October 10, 2006 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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