parse_ini_file & duplicate sections

[essexboyracer]

Hi all,

I am trying to use parse_ini_file on some text data that has duplicate section headers in (of varying quantities).

Is there some snazzy function that will scan the ini file, pick up on section headers that are the same and rename them with an increment or something so parse_ini_file wont drop any data from duplicate sections?

[sneakyimp]

rtfm: http://us2.php.net/parse_ini_file

have u tried setting the 2nd arg to TRUE?

[NogDog]

Originally Posted by sneakyimp

rtfm: http://us2.php.net/parse_ini_file

have u tried setting the 2nd arg to TRUE?

I suspect that would have no impact, as the OP stated that there were duplicate section headers, not duplicate item IDs.

As far as a function to rename sections, I don't know of one off-hand. I'd be more inclined to do some sort of search for duplicates and just raise an error if they are found, rather than arbitrarily trying to fix what may be invalid data that should be manually corrected. You could do a preg_match_all('/\[[^\]]+\]/', $text, $matches);, and then see if count($matches) == count(array_unique($matches)).

[Weedpacket]

As a variation on NogDog's post, assuming that the ini file is stored as an array (one element per line, as per the file() function), then using that regexp in a call to preg_grep() will get you, (a) a list of the section headers, and (b) the lines on which they occur. This information may be useful to you when it comes to further processing.

Hm. Actually if the lines are separated then the regexp might like to be anchored at its ends. Instead of /..../ on the ends squeeze in a ^ and $ to make /^...$/.

[essexboyracer]

thanks guys for your replies, finally sussed it with

    $subStringCount = substr_count($text, "PROPOSER ACCIDENTS");

	for ($i = 0; $i < $subStringCount; $i++){
        $text = preg_replace("/PROPOSER ACCIDENTS/", "[PROPOSER ACCIDENT " . $i . "]", $text, 1);
    }

I couldnt dump the duplicate section headers as they contained different information within, so i needed a way of renaming the section header so parse_ini would keep them in.

Thank you again!

[Weedpacket]

If you're just looking for the string "PROPOSER ACCIDENTS" then preg_replace is overkill; str_replace() would be much more efficient.