Reading a Complex Text File

[zeeshanhashmi]

Hello People !

I need to read a text file that is not Comma Separated OR Tab Separated. Its a result of another system in a text format. Have a look at the contents in attached file. I am only interested in the data that is starting form LINE No. 9.

Please guide me how to achieve this.


I shall remain thankful !

Zeeshan

[guido2004]

Supposing that the data always starts at line 9, and is always formatted in the same way, you can read the file with file() and loop through the resulting array from line 9 (array key 8) until the end. Since there's no field separator, I guess you'll have to split each line in pieces using substr.

[AnthonySterling]

This is the closest I've gotten so far, the first entry is tripping me up.

<?php
$aParsedData = array();
foreach(file('path/to/your/file.txt') as $sLine)
{
    if(1 === preg_match('~^([A-Z]{3}.+[0-9])$~', trim($sLine), $aMatches))
    {
        $aParsedData[] = preg_split('~\\s{2}\\s*~', $aMatches[0]);
    }
}
print_r($aParsedData);
/*
Array
(
    [0] => Array
        (
            [0] => AAC
            [1] => AUSTRALIAN AGRICULTURAL COMPANY L FPO
            [2] => 293,548
            [3] => 14,953
            [4] => 5.09
            [5] => -6.55
            [6] => 264,264,459
            [7] => .00
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [0] => AAX
            [1] => AUSENCO LIMITED
            [2] => FPO
            [3] => 138,574
            [4] => 36,221
            [5] => 26.13
            [6] => -1.92
            [7] => 91,648,060
            [8] => .04
        )

    [2] => Array
        (
            [0] => ABB
            [1] => ABB GRAIN LIMITED
            [2] => FPO B
            [3] => 324,806
            [4] => 85,024
            [5] => 26.17
            [6] => -2.77
            [7] => 172,799,851
            [8] => .04
        )

    [3] => Array
        (
            [0] => ABC
            [1] => ADELAIDE BRIGHTON LIMITED
            [2] => FPO
            [3] => 592,202
            [4] => 110,789
            [5] => 18.70
            [6] => .59
            [7] => 552,488,537
            [8] => .02
        )

)
*/
?>

[Mark Baker]

I think guido is right. Because the fields are fixed width, it'll need to use substr() rather than any regexp to actually extract the field data from each row.