22.9.1. ProblemYou want to read in records from a file, in which each record is separated by a pattern you can match with a regular expression. 22.9.2. SolutionRead the entire file into a string and then split on the regular expression: $filename = '/path/to/your/file.txt'; $fh = fopen($filename, 'r') or die($php_errormsg); $contents = fread($fh, filesize($filename)); fclose($fh); $records = preg_split('/[0-9]+\) /', $contents); 22.9.3. DiscussionThis breaks apart a numbered list and places the individual list items into array elements. So if you have a list like this: 1) Gödel 2) Escher 3) Bach You end up with a four-element array, with an empty opening element. That's because preg_split( ) assumes the delimiters are between items, but in this case, the numbers are before items: Array ( [0] => [1] => Gödel [2] => Escher [3] => Bach ) From one point of view, this can be a feature, not a bug, since the nth element holds the nth item. But, to compact the array, you can eliminate the first element: $records = preg_split('/[0-9]+\) /', $contents); array_shift($records); Another modification you might want is to strip newlines from the elements and substitute the empty string instead: $records = preg_split('/[0-9]+\) /', str_replace("\n",'',$contents)); array_shift($records); PHP doesn't allow you to change the input record separator to anything other than a newline, so this technique is also useful for breaking apart records divided by strings. However, if you find yourself splitting on a string instead of a regular expression, substitute explode( ) for preg_split( ) for a more efficient operation. 22.9.4. See AlsoRecipe 23.5 for reading from a file; Recipe 1.11 for parsing CSV files. |