read only 1st line of a text document

[php_joe]

is there a way to read a text document into an array, like with the file() function, but have it stop reading the file after just one or two lines?

 

Example: If I wanted to read just the first line of the following text?

 

Text:

Header1, Header2, Header3

Dog, Big, Loyal

Cat, Medium, Aloof

Mouse, Small, Scavenger

 

I know that fread can be stopped after a specified number by bytes has been read. is there a way to have it read until it hits a "\n"?

[zq29]

You can't do that with the file() function, neither can I think of one that you can - Although not a perfect solution, could you set the maxlen parameter of the file_get_contents() function? Or would that be too vague?

[php_joe]

You can't do that with the file() function, neither can I think of one that you can - Although not a perfect solution, could you set the maxlen parameter of the file_get_contents() function? Or would that be too vague?

 

That's what I'll probably end up doing, I was just hoping for something a little cleaner.

[wildteen88]

Can't you just use file, set the variables you want and then unset the handler? Eg:

$file = file('myfile.txt');

// set the variables for the first two lines.
$line1 = $file[0];
$line2 = $file[1];

// remove handler.
unset($file).

[NoSalt]

In PHP 6.0 they should include "head" and "tail" functions like in the Un*x shell. Boy that would make things nice.

[zq29]

I originally though that, but I think the OP is trying to pull the top line out of a huge file and trying to do it a bit quicker... Wouldn't that load the whole file into an array before unsetting the handler? Only guessing.

[php_joe]

Exactly!

 

I've got a rather large file full of information. The first page that you see has a search form on it that allows the viewer to search for information within each column, and it uses the first line of the document for the search topics. At the moment I'm using file() and then just $line[0] to get the info but I'd like to have the page load faster if it's possible so I was looking for a way to avoid loading the entire document when it's not needed.

[Cagecrawler]

Can't you use fgets()?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fgets.php

 

<?php
$handle = fopen("file.txt", "r");
$firstline = fgets($handle);
echo $firstline;
?>

[sKunKbad]

<?php
$lines = file('http://www.yoursite.com');
foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) {
echo str_replace("","     ",htmlentities($line)) . "<br />\n";
}
?>

 

I used this to get all lines of a file, and in this case it was a html file. If you adjust the looping I'm sure you can print just the first line.

[sKunKbad]

This works:

 

<?php

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

foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) {

if ($line_num == 0){

echo str_replace("","     ",htmlentities($line)) . "<br />\n";

}

}

?>

[Cagecrawler]

Yes, but that loads the whole file into the array to start off with, which is what the OP is currently doing and wants to avoid.

[php_joe]

Can't you use fgets()?

http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fgets.php

 

<?php
$handle = fopen("file.txt", "r");
$firstline = fgets($handle);
echo $firstline;
?>

 

Thank you!

 

This looks like what I'm looking for.