PHP - Comparing form value with values in an array

Question

I'm trying to write a code that compares the values from a text document with a value that has been posted from a form.

So far i've got this, but i'm absolutely positive i'm doing something way off.

Thanks in advance for your help!

<form method="POST" action="file.php"> 
<p>
<br /><input type="text" name="name" ><br />
</p>
<p><input type="submit" value="Check" /></p>
</form>

<?php
if (isset($_POST['name'])) {
    $name = $_POST['name'];

    /*The text document contains these written names: 
    Michael 
    Terry 
    John 
    Phillip*/ 

    $lines = file('names.txt'); 

    $names_array = ($lines);   

        if (in_array($name, $names_array)) {
            echo "exists";
        } else {
            echo 'none';
        }
}
?>

UPDATE: Fixed and now working fine!

Hugo Delsing · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-16 07:04:30Z

2

The problem is with your file('names.txt') function. Although this returns an array with each line in a seperate key, it also includes the newline charactor on that same line.

So your array actually contains:

$lines[0] = "Michael\n";
$lines[1] = "Terry\n";
$lines[2] = "John\n";
$lines[3] = "Phillip\n";

To prevent this from happening, use file('names.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES)

$lines[0] = "Michael";
$lines[1] = "Terry";
$lines[2] = "John";
$lines[3] = "Phillip";

Now your name should match.

Besides that, why do you use the following?

$lines = file('names.txt'); 
$names_array = ($lines);

//simply use the following.
$names_array = file('names.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES);

edited May 16, 2013 at 7:04

answered May 16, 2013 at 6:55

Hugo Delsing

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1 Comment

CMichael Over a year ago

Yep, just realised that i was making more work for myself there! Fixed it up! Thanks!

Kevin · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-16 06:54:22Z

0

Read the doc about file : http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.file.php

Note:

Each line in the resulting array will include the line ending, unless FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES is used, so you still need to use rtrim() if you do not want the line ending present.

answered May 16, 2013 at 6:54

Kevin

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Comments

Niladri Das · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-16 07:41:23Z

-1

/*The text document contains these written names: 
Michael 
Terry 
John 
Phillip*/ 

$lines = file('data.txt'); //Lets say we got an array with these values   //$lines =array('Michael','John','Terry','Phillip');    $i=0;
foreach($lines as $line)   {
$lines[$i] =trim($line);
$i++;   }    

    if (in_array($name, $lines)) {
        echo "exists";
    } else {
        echo 'none';
    } } ?

Blockquote

data.txt

Michael Terry John Phillip

data.txt has spaces ,so we use trim() to remove it.

edited May 16, 2013 at 7:41

answered May 16, 2013 at 7:04

Niladri Das

644 bronze badges

11 Comments

CMichael Over a year ago

Thanks for your help, now everything is working exactly the way i need it to! Marked as answer!

Hugo Delsing Over a year ago

Thats just a terrible solution. First of all its not needed to loop through all the lines. Then to solve it you add the trimmed version to the end of the array, making it twice the length. So you end up with all names double in the list, once with and once without newline char. And you also add a random $i you are increasing for no reason at all.

CMichael Over a year ago

@HugoDelsing - I'm really new to PHP, so if the answer above is bloated with unnecessary code, thanks for pointing it out! I tried your advice in adding 'ignore new lines' however it still didn't work for me. ie outputting none instead of exists. Any other ideas?

Niladri Das Over a year ago

array(4) { [0]=> string(7) "Michael" [1]=> string(5) "Terry" [2]=> string(4) "John" [3]=> string(7) "Phillip" }

Hugo Delsing Over a year ago

Try it yourself Niladri: $lines = array("test", "test2");foreach($lines as $line) { $lines[] = $line;}var_dump($lines); and you'll notice that you will have 4 keys in the final dump.

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