php mysql insert into table from text file with fixed width - php

Question

I'm trying to write a cron job that would run a php script which would insert data from flat (text) file with fixed columns.
My file 'data.txt' looks something like that:
first_column second_column third_column
Eg. first column has width of 30 characters + 1 space for separation from next column, second 20 characters + 1 space for separation, third 15 (including whitespaces). My table 'TEST' has 3 columns: first, second and third.
Question is, how to first trim column data and then insert each row into the table?
<?php
// initial database stuff
$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'username';
$pass = 'password';
$db = 'database';
$connection = mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass) or die ("Unable to connect!");
mysql_select_db($db) or die ("Unable to select database!");
$file = file('/home/user/files/data.txt'); # read file into array
$count = count($file);
if($count > 0) # file is not empty
{
$query = "INSERT into TEST(first,second,third) values";
$i = 1;
foreach($file as $row)
{
$query .= "('TRIM(SUBSTR($row,1,30))','TRIM(SUBSTR($row,32,20))','TRIM(SUBSTR($row,34,49))')";
$query .= $i < $count ? ',':'';
$i++;
}
mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
}
echo "File data successfully imported to database!!";
?>

Answer 1

And here is how it might look like:
<?php
// initial database stuff
$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'username';
$pass = 'password';
$db = 'database';
$connection = mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass) or die ("Unable to connect!");
mysql_select_db($db) or die ("Unable to select database!");
$file = file('/home/user/files/data.txt'); # read file into array
$count = count($file);
// Edited to add loop back in... Silly me.
if($count > 0) # file is not empty
{
foreach ($file as $row){
$first=trim(substr($row,0,30));
$second=trim(substr($row,31,20));
$third=trim(substr($row,33,49));
$query = "INSERT into TEST(first,second,third) values".
"($first,$second,$third)";
mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
}
}
echo "File data successfully imported to database!!";
?>
Consider using PDO and prepared statement, to make it even cleaner ( and safer ).

Answer 2

Try this
<?php
// initial database stuff
$host = 'localhost';
$user = 'username';
$pass = 'password';
$db = 'database';
$connection = mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass) or die ("Unable to connect!");
mysql_select_db($db) or die ("Unable to select database!");
$file = file('/home/user/files/data.txt'); # read file into array
$count = count($file);
if($count > 0) # file is not empty
{
foreach($file as $key => $row)
{
if( $key == 0 ){
$col_1 = str_replace( " ", "" , trim(substr($row,1,30));
$col_2 = str_replace( " ", "" , trim(substr($row,32,20));
$col_3 = str_replace( " ", "" , trim(substr($row,34,49));
$query = "INSERT into TEST(col_1,col_2,col_3) values";
}
else {
$query .= "'TRIM(SUBSTR($row,1,30))','TRIM(SUBSTR($row,32,20))','TRIM(SUBSTR($row,34,49))')";
$query .= $key < $count ? ',':'';
}
}
mysql_query($query) or die(mysql_error());
}
echo "File data successfully imported to database!!";
?>

Answer 3

At the end I ended up using PDO as suggested.
It works fine with strings with commas in the middle, and it skips empty rows.
<?php
// configuration
$dbtype = 'sqlite';
$dbhost = 'localhost';
$dbuser = 'user_for_db';
$dbpass = 'pass_for_db';
$dbname = 'name_of_db';
// database connection
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$dbhost;dbname=$dbname;charset=utf8",$dbuser,$dbpass); //charset optional
// open data file
$handle = fopen('/home/user/data/file.txt', 'r');
if ($handle)
{
while (($buffer = fgets($handle, 4096)) !== false)
{
// new data
$first =trim(substr($buffer,0,8));
$second =trim(substr($buffer,9,10));
$third =trim(substr($buffer,20,6));
$fourth =trim(substr($buffer,27,100));
$fifth =str_replace(" , ", ", ", trim(substr($buffer,128,113)));
$sixth =trim(substr($buffer,240,30));
// query
$sql = "INSERT INTO table(column_1,column_2,column_3,column_4,column_5,column_6) VALUES (:first,:second,:third,:fourth,:fifth,:sixth)";
$q = $conn->prepare($sql);
$q->execute(array( ':first' =>$first,
':second' =>$second,
':third' =>$third,
':fourth' =>$fourth,
':fifth' =>$fifth,
':sixth' =>$sixth ));
}
if (!feof($handle))
{
echo "Error: unexpected fgets() fail\n";
}
fclose($handle);
echo "File data successfully imported to database!";
}
?>