Help with PHP snippet

Hey, I made this PHP script that opens a file and uses the information from each line to print out links, info, and more. The problem is: In the middle of the scripts loop it tries to open a file, but for some reason it only opens the file successfully the first time. I want it to be able to open the file every time the script loops.

Here is my script:

<?php

$path = 'robots/latest_robots.txt';
$file = file_get_contents("$path");

  $y = explode("|", $file);

$z = 0;
$x = 0;
while($z < 10)
{
  
  $id = $y[$x];     $x++;  // Robot ID
  $type = $y[$x];   $x++;  // Robot Type
  $author = $y[$x]; $x++;  // Author
  $title = $y[$x];  $x++;  // Title
  
  // Comment Count
  $newpath = "robots/$type/doc/$id.count.txt";
  $comments = file_get_contents("$newpath");  //This is the file that open 1 time only (NOTE: I am opening new files every loop)
  
  echo '<tr>';
  echo "<td><a href='view.php?type=$type&id=$id'>$title</a></td>";
  echo "<td>$type</td><td>$author</td><td>$comments</td>";
  echo "</tr>\n";

  $x += 2;
  $z++;
}
?> 

PHP:

Here is latest_robots.txt

123456|rover|Evan|My Rover|
654321|rover|Jason|Red Rover|
432012|arm|Mike|Big Hand|

Code (markup):

Thanks!
- Evan Byrne

 

$file = file_get_contents("$path");

Code (markup):

This reads the whole file into a string value. I would do this instead.

@file("$path");

Code (markup):

It will read each line into a single array. So $arr[1] will be line 1. Then you can just put that into a session varible and then each file use the start_session. and then just call that session varible when you need it?

I think you should ditch the flat file system and go with a sql system. It would make it a lot easier for you to work with.

 

I'd use fgets(), as you only need 10 lines. file() or file_get_contents() is a waste of resources.

<?php

$path = 'robots/latest_robots.txt';
$file = fopen($path, 'r');

$z = 0;
while($z++ < 10)
{
  // Robot info
  list($id, $type, $author, $title) = explode("|", fgets($fp));
  
  // Comment Count
  $newpath = "robots/$type/doc/$id.count.txt";
  $comments = file_get_contents($newpath);
 
  echo '<tr>';
  echo "<td><a href='view.php?type=$type&id=$id'>$title</a></td>";
  echo "<td>$type</td><td>$author</td><td>$comments</td>";
  echo "</tr>\n";
}
?>

PHP:

 

you can explode the contents latest_robots.txt twice; 1st for each line, then for each "|" seprated value.

- note that i used trim to remove whitespaces.
- you can also add some validation in case some of the values are empty.

<?php

$path = 'robots/latest_robots.txt';
$file = file_get_contents("$path");

$z = explode("\n", $file);

foreach ($z as $my_z)
{
  $y = explode("|",trim($my_z));
 
  $id = trim($y[0]);       // Robot ID
  $type = trim($y[1]);     // Robot Type
  $author = trim($y[2]);   // Author
  $title = trim($y[3]);    // Title
 
  // Comment Count
  $newpath = "robots/$type/doc/$id.count.txt";
  $comments = file_get_contents("$newpath");  //This is the file that open 1 time only (NOTE: I am opening new files every loop)
 
  echo '<tr>';
  echo "<td><a href=\"view.php?type=$type&id=$id\">$title</a></td>";
  echo "<td>$type</td><td>$author</td><td>$comments</td>";
  echo "</tr>\n";
}
?>

PHP:

 

bloodredxxx, I just explained why using file_get_contents() is not a good choice for this...