Re: multi-dim array from text file

Larry Pisani wrote:

Hi, I need to do some text file manipulation of a text file from an html interface. I have a file with multiple lines where each line has 2 fields each (a mac address and an associated vlan). Here's an example of rht text file: /tmp/TEST: ==================== a1b2.c3d4.e5cc VLAN3 a1b2.c3d4.e5dd VLAN4 a1b2.c3d4.e5ee IS a1b2.c3d4.e5ff VLAN6 a1b2.c3d4.e5a1 VLAN7 a1b2.c3d4.e5b2 VLAN8 a1b2.c3d4.e5c3 Printer a1b2.c3d4.e5d4 Guest a1b2.c3d4.e5e5 IS a1b2.c3d4.e5f6 VLAN6 a1b2.c3d4.e5a2 VLAN2 a1b2.c3d4.e5a3 VLAN4 ==================== Being an admin and not a developer of any kind, I'm having trouble reading in the file and being able to output specific lines and fields of a php array.

[ snip ] Try this <?php $infile = "/tmp/TEST"; $contents = file($infile); if (!$contents) { die("Could not read ".$infile); }

  $tmp    = array();

$lookup = array(); while(list($num,$line) = each($contents)) {

     $tmp = explode(" ",$line);
     $lookup[$tmp[0]] = $tmp[1];

} ?> Now you have an array with the "key" being the mac address, and the value being your vlan, something like this (actual output of the snippet above): Array (

    [a1b2.c3d4.e5cc] => VLAN3
    [a1b2.c3d4.e5dd] => VLAN4

) You can search this array for the mac address, and then output the associated lan, or you be a bit more on-topic, create a form with the associated data, like so : <?php echo '<table border="0">'; echo '<tr><td colspan="2">VLAN Editor</td></tr>'; while(list($mac,$vlan) = each($lookup)) {

     echo '<tr><td>';
     echo $mac;
     echo '</td><td>';
     echo '<input type="text" name="'.$mac.'" value="'.$vlan."' />';
     echo '</td></tr>';

} echo '</table>'; ?> You can add the form bits however you like :)

What I want to eventually do is read in the "records" and fields of this file, present it as a form, allow admins to modify the second field and write that back to the text file (while backing up the original file).

In order to preserve your original data, I would suggest you make a backup of it first (copy the file if you have to). If you will be doing a lot of read/writes and updates, consider using a database to store the information. [ trimmed rest ] Hope this helps, Burhan