I would like to get feedback on the efficiency of solving a problem with a PHP script, as I wrote code different from my computer science teacher’s, which he did not look upon favorably.
CODE 1
if (isset($_POST["modificato"])) { // Checks if the form has been submitted with the "modificato" field.
$descriptor = fopen("palloniOro.txt", "r"); // Opens the "palloniOro.txt" file in read mode.
while (!feof($descriptor)) { // Continues reading until the end of the file.
$line = fgets($descriptor); // Reads a line from the file.
$content = str_replace("\n", "", $line); // Removes the newline character (\n) from the read line.
if (strlen($content) > 2) { // Checks that the line is not empty or too short.
$balls[] = explode(",", $content); // Splits the line into an array using a comma as the delimiter.
}
}
$year = $_POST["anno"]; // Retrieves the year value sent via POST.
$winner = $_POST["vincitore"]; // Retrieves the winner's name sent via POST.
$team = $_POST["squadra"]; // Retrieves the team's name sent via POST.
$score = $_POST["punteggio"]; // Retrieves the score sent via POST.
fclose($descriptor); // Closes the file opened in read mode.
$descriptor = fopen("palloniOro.txt", "w"); // Reopens the file in write mode to overwrite it.
$notFound = -1; // Initializes a variable to check if the year was found (-1 means "not found").
for ($i = 0; $i < count($balls); $i++) { // Iterates over each line stored in `$balls`.
if ($balls[$i][0] == $year) { // If the first value (year) matches the specified year.
fwrite($descriptor, $year . "," . $winner . "," . $team . "," . $score . "\n"); // Writes the updated data to the file.
$notFound = 1; // Sets `$notFound` to 1 to indicate that the line was found and updated.
} else {
fwrite($descriptor, $balls[$i][0] . "," . $balls[$i][1] . "," . $balls[$i][2] . "," . $balls[$i][3] . "\n"); // Writes the original line without modifications.
}
}
fclose($descriptor); // Closes the file after writing all lines.
}
CODE 2 (MINE)
if (isset($_POST['modifica'])) { // Checks if the form has been submitted with the "modifica" field.
$done = false; // Variable to indicate if a modification was made (initially false).
$backupStream = fopen('backup.txt', 'a'); // Opens (or creates) the "backup.txt" file in append mode to write updated data.
$mainStream = fopen('palloniOro.txt', 'r'); // Opens the original "palloniOro.txt" file in read mode.
while (!feof($mainStream)) { // Continues reading until the end of the file.
$line = fgets($mainStream); // Reads a line from the file.
if ($line) { // Checks that the line is not empty.
$data = explode(',', $line); // Splits the line into an array using a comma as the delimiter.
if ($data[0] == $_POST['anno']) { // Checks if the year in the line matches the year sent via POST.
$data[1] = !empty($_POST['nome']) ? $_POST['nome'] : $data[1]; // Updates the name if provided, otherwise keeps the original value.
$data[2] = !empty($_POST['squadra']) ? $_POST['squadra'] : $data[2]; // Updates the team if provided, otherwise keeps the original value.
$data[3] = !empty($_POST['punti']) ? $_POST['punti'] : str_replace("\n","",$data[3]); // Updates the score if provided, otherwise keeps the original value.
$line = implode(',', $data); // Reassembles the updated line into a comma-separated string.
$line = $line . "\n"; // Adds the newline character (\n).
$done = true; // Indicates that a modification has occurred.
}
if (!$done) { // If no modification was made.
$line = implode(',', $data); // Keeps the original line unchanged.
}
fwrite($backupStream, $line); // Writes the line (modified or not) to the backup file.
}
}
fclose($backupStream); // Closes the "backup.txt" file.
fclose($mainStream); // Closes the original "palloniOro.txt" file.
unlink('palloniOro.txt'); // Deletes the original "palloniOro.txt" file.
rename('backup.txt', 'palloniOro.txt'); // Renames "backup.txt" to "palloniOro.txt", replacing the original file.
}
As you can see, the script handles a POST request from a form to modify a row in a text file. My teacher don’t accept the append mode instead of the write mode, but i prefer that because I want to use two stream and file for a safe reading and writing. Who is right??
The text file has the following repeated structure for multiple lines:
YEAR1,PLAYER1,TEAM1,SCORE1
YEAR2,PLAYER2,TEAM2,SCORE2
Feel free to ask for clarifications about the problem, and thank you!
