Read File extract line by line

[ghvn]

Hi

I'm new to PHP and programming but have managed to make an article creation script. This script indexes and formats user submitted articles. It writes links to articles in a text file, the links are preformatted as list items.

I want to read the first 5 links from this file, strip the formatting and then display them on my main page.

The text file is in this format...

<li><a href=&quot;Sep-06-213155.php&quot;>Test Article</a><br /><span class=&quot;redtext&quot;><b>Mike</b></span> <span class=&quot;greytext&quot;>6th September 2001</span></li>

I made the following to extract and reformat the first 5 links. It does not work and I am stuck!!

<?

#open file
	$myfile = &quot;/PATH/TO/data.txt&quot;;

#number of files plus one
	$maxlatest =4;  

	#- Article links file
	if(file_exists($myfile)){
		$fh = fopen($myfile, &quot;r&quot;);
		$old_news = fread($fh, filesize($myfile));
		fclose($fh);
	}

 
	#- get first five article links
	$articles = explode(&quot;</li>&quot;, $old_news);

	$articles = str_replace(&quot;<li>&quot;,&quot;&quot;,$articles);
	$articles = str_replace(&quot;<br />&quot;,&quot; by &quot;,$articles);
	$articles = str_replace(&quot;2001</span>&quot;,&quot;2001</span><br />&quot;,$articles);

	$i=0;
	foreach ($articles as $article){
		if(count($articles)>$i){
			if($maxlatest >= $i++){
				print $article;
			}
		}
	}



?>

Any help would be appreciated, I think I am going along the wrong lines with this

Cheers
Mike

 

[inlandpac]

This will get you started. The following is based on your sample <li>....</li>.

Copy the following and paste it into a new file, upload it and then run it. You will see the following:

Article Link: Sep-06-213155.php
Article Title: Test Article
Article Author: Mike
Article Date: 6th September 2001

<?php
$string = '<li><a href=&quot;Sep-06-213155.php&quot;>Test Article</a><br /><span class=&quot;redtext&quot;><b>Mike</b></span> <span class=&quot;greytext&quot;>6th September 2001</span></li>';

eregi(&quot;.+href *= *['\&quot;]?([^'\&quot; >]*)['\&quot; >]>*(.+)</a>.+<b>(.+)</b>.+span *.+>(.+)</span>.+&quot;,$string,$data);

echo &quot;<b>Article Link:</b> &quot;.$data[1].&quot;<br>\n&quot;;
echo &quot;<b>Article Title:</b> &quot;.$data[2].&quot;<br>\n&quot;;
echo &quot;<b>Article Author:</b> &quot;.$data[3].&quot;<br>\n&quot;;
echo &quot;<b>Article Date:</b> &quot;.$data[4].&quot;<br>\n&quot;;
?>

Chad. ICQ: 54380631

 

[ghvn]

Hi Chad, thanks for the help, it is a lot more elegant than my attempt.

I'll let you know how I get on!

Cheers again
Mike