How to write fixed width text file with PHP and MYSQL data - php

Question

I have an issue in writing fixed width text file using php and data from mysql db. Pl find below format where I have a customer table:
customer name of 100 char width
customer address of 200 chars width.
I need to print these in the below format.
3M India Limited Plot 48-51 Electronic City
Biocon Ltd 20th KM Hosur Road,Electronic city
Now my customer name keeps varying, but I need to fix this width and then print Address. Below is my code where I am manually giving the spaces which is causing the data to go haphazard when written in a text file.
php Code:
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = " ".$cust2[Ac_desc];
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = " ".$cust2[Add1]."\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

Answer 1

First, make sure your Ac_desc and Add1 are defined constants or quote them to treat as associative indexes.
Second, try the str_pad() function.
fwrite($fh, str_pad($cust2['Ac_desc'], 100));
fwrite($fh, str_pad($cust2['Add1'], 200));

Answer 2

First you decide a static width for your first column, say 100 characters.
Then try with this code
$myFile = "testFile.txt";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w') or die("can't open file");
$stringData = " ".$cust2[Ac_desc];
$spaces = 100 - strlen($cust2[Ac_desc]); // get the number of spaces to add
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
$stringData = str_repeat(" ",$spaces).$cust2[Add1]."\n";
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

Answer 3

You can use MySQL's RPAD() function together with its SELECT ... INTO OUTFILE command:
SELECT
RPAD(ColumnA, #width, ' '),
RPAD(ColumnB, #width, ' '),
-- etc.
INTO OUTFILE '/path/to/file.prn'
FIELDS TERMINATED BY '' ENCLOSED BY '' ESCAPED BY ''
LINES TERMINATED BY '\n' STARTING BY ''