I was wondering how to save PHP variables to a txt file and then
retrieve them again.
Example:
There is an input box, after submitted the stuff that was written in
the input box will be saved to a text file. Later on the results need
to be brought back as a variable. So lets say the variable is $text I
need that to be saved to a text file and be able to retrieve it back
again.
This should do what you want, but without more context I can't tell for sure.
Writing $text to a file:
$text = "Anything";
$var_str = var_export($text, true);
$var = "<?php\n\n\$text = $var_str;\n\n?>";
file_put_contents('filename.php', $var);
Retrieving it again:
include 'filename.php';
echo $text;
Personally, I'd use file_put_contents and file_get_contents (these are wrappers for fopen, fputs, etc).
Also, if you are going to write any structured data, such as arrays, I suggest you serialize and unserialize the files contents.
$file = '/tmp/file';
$content = serialize($my_variable);
file_put_contents($file, $content);
$content = unserialize(file_get_contents($file));
(Sorry I can't comment just yet, otherwise I would)
To add to Christian's answer you might consider using json_encode and json_decode instead of serialize and unserialize to keep you safe. See a warning from the PHP man page:
Warning
Do not pass untrusted user input to unserialize(). Unserialization can result in code being loaded and executed due to object instantiation and autoloading, and a malicious user may be able to exploit this. Use a safe, standard data interchange format such as JSON (via json_decode() and json_encode()) if you need to pass serialized data to the user.
So your final solution might have the following:
$file = '/tmp/file';
$content = json_encode($my_variable);
file_put_contents($file, $content);
$content = json_decode(file_get_contents($file), TRUE);
for_example, you have anyFile.php, and there is written $any_variable='hi Frank';
to change that variable to hi Jack, use like the following code:
<?php
$content = file_get_contents('anyFile.php');
$new_content = preg_replace('/\$any_variable=\"(.*?)\";/', '$any_variable="hi Jack";', $content);
file_put_contents('anyFile.php', $new_content);
?>
Use a combination of of fopen, fwrite and fread. PHP.net has excellent documentation and examples of each of them.
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fwrite.php
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fread.php
Use serialize() on the variable, then save the string to a file. later you will be able to read the serialed var from the file and rebuilt the original var (wether it was a string or an array or an object)
Okay, so I needed a solution to this, and I borrowed heavily from the answers to this question and made a library: https://github.com/rahuldottech/varDx (Licensed under the MIT license).
It uses serialize() and unserialize() and writes data to a file. It can read and write multiple objects/variables/whatever to and from the same file.
Usage:
<?php
require 'varDx.php';
$dx = new \varDx\cDX; //create an object
$dx->def('file.dat'); //define data file
$val1 = "this is a string";
$dx->write('data1', $val1); //writes key to file
echo $dx->read('data1'); //returns key value from file
See the github page for more information. It has functions to read, write, check, modify and delete data.
Related
I was wondering how to save PHP variables to a txt file and then
retrieve them again.
Example:
There is an input box, after submitted the stuff that was written in
the input box will be saved to a text file. Later on the results need
to be brought back as a variable. So lets say the variable is $text I
need that to be saved to a text file and be able to retrieve it back
again.
This should do what you want, but without more context I can't tell for sure.
Writing $text to a file:
$text = "Anything";
$var_str = var_export($text, true);
$var = "<?php\n\n\$text = $var_str;\n\n?>";
file_put_contents('filename.php', $var);
Retrieving it again:
include 'filename.php';
echo $text;
Personally, I'd use file_put_contents and file_get_contents (these are wrappers for fopen, fputs, etc).
Also, if you are going to write any structured data, such as arrays, I suggest you serialize and unserialize the files contents.
$file = '/tmp/file';
$content = serialize($my_variable);
file_put_contents($file, $content);
$content = unserialize(file_get_contents($file));
(Sorry I can't comment just yet, otherwise I would)
To add to Christian's answer you might consider using json_encode and json_decode instead of serialize and unserialize to keep you safe. See a warning from the PHP man page:
Warning
Do not pass untrusted user input to unserialize(). Unserialization can result in code being loaded and executed due to object instantiation and autoloading, and a malicious user may be able to exploit this. Use a safe, standard data interchange format such as JSON (via json_decode() and json_encode()) if you need to pass serialized data to the user.
So your final solution might have the following:
$file = '/tmp/file';
$content = json_encode($my_variable);
file_put_contents($file, $content);
$content = json_decode(file_get_contents($file), TRUE);
for_example, you have anyFile.php, and there is written $any_variable='hi Frank';
to change that variable to hi Jack, use like the following code:
<?php
$content = file_get_contents('anyFile.php');
$new_content = preg_replace('/\$any_variable=\"(.*?)\";/', '$any_variable="hi Jack";', $content);
file_put_contents('anyFile.php', $new_content);
?>
Use a combination of of fopen, fwrite and fread. PHP.net has excellent documentation and examples of each of them.
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fwrite.php
http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.fread.php
Use serialize() on the variable, then save the string to a file. later you will be able to read the serialed var from the file and rebuilt the original var (wether it was a string or an array or an object)
Okay, so I needed a solution to this, and I borrowed heavily from the answers to this question and made a library: https://github.com/rahuldottech/varDx (Licensed under the MIT license).
It uses serialize() and unserialize() and writes data to a file. It can read and write multiple objects/variables/whatever to and from the same file.
Usage:
<?php
require 'varDx.php';
$dx = new \varDx\cDX; //create an object
$dx->def('file.dat'); //define data file
$val1 = "this is a string";
$dx->write('data1', $val1); //writes key to file
echo $dx->read('data1'); //returns key value from file
See the github page for more information. It has functions to read, write, check, modify and delete data.
I used this to write a array into a text file:
$fp = fopen('file.txt', 'w');
fwrite($fp, print_r($newStrings, TRUE));
fclose($fp);
now i want to read it back in php just like i would read a normal array? how do i do it? I'm fairly new to this and im currently on a deadline to get something related tot this fixed, pls help.
var_export() would be valid PHP code that you could then include and work better than print_r(), but I recommend using JSON / json_encode(). serialize() would also work similar to JSON but isn't portable.
Write:
file_put_contents('file.txt', json_encode($newStrings));
Read:
$newStrings = json_decode(file_get_contents('file.txt'), true);
Use PHP serialize and unserialize to do this.
Writing to file:
$myArray = ['test','test2','test3'];
$fp = fopen('file.txt', 'w');
fwrite($fp, serialize($myArray));
fclose($fp);
Or slimmer:
file_put_contents('file.txt',serialize($myArray));
Reading it again:
$myArray = unserialize(file_get_contents('file.txt'));
Use json_encode() or serialize() on the data when you write it and then use json_decode() or unserialize() on the data when you have read it.
To see the differences check this question:
JSON vs. Serialized Array in database
I have a huge a CSV file which I parse to store the data in a PHP array. For different PHP files I have to parse it again and again to store it in the array. How can I prevent this by storing it in array and then have this array available to all PHP files?
apc_cache() is what you want. http://us.php.net/manual/en/function.apc-fetch.php
You can write it to a file. Use serialize() before. Then include the file each time you need it (include_once):
$my_csv_data = serialize($data);
Store the array in a file using serialize:
file_put_contents('file.txt', serialize($data));
Then when you need to access it again, use unserialize:
$data = unserialize(file_get_contents('file.txt'));
Good morning all, i have a new question:
I'm trying to save into mysql a set of data coming from a SIMBAD database query (it's a stellar objects dataabse).
If you enter this url into the browser: http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?output.format=ASCII&Ident=hd%201&OutputMode=VOTable
you get a result formated with separate lines, but if you use
<?php
$cadaart = 'http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?output.format=ASCII&Ident=hd%201';
$handler = curl_init($cadaart);
$response = curl_exec ($handler);
curl_close($handler);
echo $response;
?>
or a simple file_get_content and echo the response you get a single line with all information, which makes me impossible to parse... Any idea on how to solve this?
Thanks.
The string is already with line-break,
you can use file to convert contents from that URL into an array (each line is an array element)
A URL can be used as a filename with this function if the fopen wrappers have been enabled. See fopen() for more details on how to specify the filename. See the Supported Protocols and Wrappers for links to information about what abilities the various wrappers have, notes on their usage, and information on any predefined variables they may provide.
It's probably just the difference between an LF and a CRLF. The output from your URL is LF, which, in where you're viewing it (browser?), is probably not parsed as a new line.
Try $response = str_replace("\n", "\r\n", $response); and see if this makes any difference
I'm trying to figure out how to stored php values in a string/file.
I have a text file with "var1=foo&var2=foo2" etc in it, is there a way to read the values?
You could use file_get_contents() to open the file and parse_url() to parse the contents into an associative array.
$file = file_get_contents('file.txt');
parse_str($file, $params);
CodePad.
Or if you can change it, theres always serialize() and unserialize()