[SOLVED] Incrementing value in PHP

[LemonInflux]

OK, here's what I have:

 

I have a file, for the purpose of demonstration, we shall call it test.php.

Within test.php, we have the following:

 

1||tags more stuff to search for||article of some description here||comments

 

And then, we might have another line such as:

 

2||other tags to search for||article of some description here||comments

 

Right, here's my question unto you PHP freaks;

 

I am capable of setting up comments, articles, tags, everything but the first number. So, to cut the whole thing short, I'm looking for a way of getting PHP to read the file, look for the highest value number in that first array, add 1 to it, and write a line that will be:

 

Highest+1||tags||article||comments

 

So, is there anyway to do this? I'm sure it'll be a function called MAX or something, where you just look for the highest value in that using a foreach loop, but I haven't found one. any ideas?

[LemonInflux]

Hah, oops, max worked. Topic solved.

[LemonInflux]

Upon reading through, I'm still none-the-wiser. Anyone have any ideas about this?

[BlueSkyIS]

If you can't use a database and are stuck with a flat file.....

 

you'll need to loop over each line, getting the first value of each line (I'd use explode on the double-pipes), find the max, then add 1. I'd keep track of the biggest number and replace it if/when the first value is larger than the biggest number:

 

// Inside loop

$bignum = ($newnum > $bignum)?$newnum:$bignum;

[LemonInflux]

A) Yeah, has to be flat for this project.

B) Full code example, please?

[LemonInflux]

bump..

[BlueSkyIS]

Full code example, please? Seriously?? What have you tried?

 

Some tips: there is a function that reads all lines of a file into an array. Then loop over the elements of the array, exploding each one to get the first number.

[LemonInflux]

What I mean is:

 

foreach($data as $line)
{
$info = explode('|', $line);
$info[0] *code here*;
}

 

I'm not sure how to do it at all. I guess I could use the max function, but I have no idea how I'd work with it for this. It finds the max number in a set of numbers.

[Barand]

If you always append a record with the new highest value, the highest will aways be the last one.

<?php
$data = file('test.txt');
$last = end($data);
list($highval) = explode ('||', $last);

[LemonInflux]

Oooh, I see. So then, to add a new record 1 highger, you'd just to ($last(highval) + 1);?

[Barand]

My code extracts the highest value in the file so far. Your next will be $highval + 1

[rarebit]

Yes, we like 'end()', a new one on me, but what if the file isn't fully chronological?

[Barand]

My solution was conditional

 

If you always append a record with the new highest value, ...

 

but it does seem that that is the intent.

[LemonInflux]

It's always going to be like that, yes. Although, they might end up not being entirely chronological, but if it's selecting the last, even if the numbers are 1, 200, 201, 250, it'll still pick 250, right?

[Barand]

Best way to find out is try it.