You want to read in records from a file, in which each record is separated by a pattern you can match with a regular expression.
Read the entire file into a string and then split on the regular expression:
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$contents = file_get_contents('/path/to/your/file.txt'); $records = preg_split('/[0-9]+\) /', $contents); |
This breaks apart a numbered list and places the individual list items into array elements. So if you have a list like this:
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1) Gödel 2) Escher 3) Bach |
you end up with a four-element array, with an empty opening element. That’s because preg_split() assumes the delimiters are between items, but in this case, the numbers are before items:
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array(4) { [0]=> string(0) "" [1]=> string(7) "Gödel " [2]=> string(7) "Escher " [3]=> string(5) "Bach " } |
From one point of view, this can be a feature, not a bug, because the nth element holds the nth item. But, to compact the array, you can eliminate the first element:
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$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:
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$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.
