Writing to .txt file in columns with php - php

Question

I have an associative array in php, for example with the values:
"apple" => "green"
"banana" => "yellow"
"grape" => "red"
My question is, how can I write the keys and values for this array to a .txt file into two perfect columns?
By which I mean into two columns with a uniform distance between them all the way down

Answer 1

You can use str_pad() php function for the output.
http://php.net/manual/en/function.str-pad.php
Code:
<?php
$fruits = array( "apple" => "green",
"banana" => "yellow",
"grape" => "red" );
$filename = "file.txt";
$text = "";
foreach($fruits as $key => $fruit) {
$text .= str_pad($key, 20)." ".str_pad($fruit, 10 )."\n"; // Use str_pad() for uniform distance
}
$fh = fopen($filename, "w") or die("Could not open log file.");
fwrite($fh, $text) or die("Could not write file!");
fclose($fh);
Output:
apple green
banana yellow
grape red
// Getting the length dynamically version.
<?php
$fruits = array( "apple" => "green",
"banana" => "yellow",
"grape" => "red" );
$filename = "file.txt";
$maxKeyLength = 0;
$maxValueLength = 0;
foreach ($fruits as $key => $value) {
$maxKeyLength = $maxKeyLength < strlen( $key ) ? strlen( $key ) : $maxKeyLength;
$maxValueLength = $maxValueLength < strlen($value) ? strlen($value) : $maxValueLength ;
}
$text = "";
foreach($fruits as $key => $fruit) {
$text .= str_pad($key, $maxKeyLength)." ".str_pad($fruit, $maxValueLength )."\n"; //User str_pad() for uniform distance
}
$fh = fopen($filename, "w") or die("Could not open log file.");
fwrite($fh, $text) or die("Could not write file!");
fclose($fh);

Answer 2

Maybe a long shot, but you could possible do something like find the max array key length and then use that as a guide for how many spaces you want in between the words.
eg.
You could get the max array key length using strlen() like this:
$maxLength = 0;
foreach($array as $key => $item){
if(strlen($key) > $maxLength){
$maxLength = strlen($key);
}
}
$maxLength += 5; //or any spacing value here
And then use str_pad() to add padding to the word like this:
$str = '';
foreach($array as $key => $item){
$str .= str_pad($key, $maxLength, ' ', STR_PAD_RIGHT) . $item . '\n'; //add padding to the right hand side of the word with spaces
}
file_put_contents('path/to/file', $str);
This probably isn't the best solution but you could probably make it more efficient.

Answer 3

Update
I revised the functionality, and the below will work with a string (array key) of any length.
$longest = 0;
// find the longest string.
foreach ($array as $key => $val) {
$c = strlen($key);
$longest = ($c > $longest) ? $c : $longest;
}
$distance = 5;
$str = '';
// now loop through and apply the appropriate space
foreach ($array as $key => $val) {
$c = strlen($key);
$space = $distance + ($longest - $c);
$str .= $key . str_repeat(" ", $space) . $val . "\n";
}
echo $str;
Example
I don't understand why you'd want to do something like this, but this will do as you desire:
$str = '';
foreach($array as $key => $item){
$str .= $key . "\t" .$item ."\n";
}
file_put_contents('path/to/file', $str);
Example
You'd obviously have to test the file_put_contents() to ensure it succeeded, but I'll leave that to you.
You'd just have to change the ammount of tabs (\t) if you run into any long strings. In your case, it'd probably be best if you went with 2 (\t\t).

Answer 4

$Offer is your array
$file = 'people.txt';
$content = '';
foreach ($Offer as $key => $value) {
$content .= $key.'='.$value;
// Write the contents back to the file
file_put_contents($file, $current);
}