[thelist] PHP includes/comparing string values

[Andrew Forsberg]

At 3:01 PM -1000 4/3/02, Timothy Martens wrote:
>So it sort of works. I mean when the $contetns == $checkval -- it does
>overwrite the $filename with return $noting/"TESTING"
>
>BUT... When I refresh/comeback to the page. That is, when $contents and
>$checkval are no longer equal, rather than just including $noting, it
>seems to be overwriting "thefile.inc" altogether with NOTHING?

Hi Tim,

Try not opening the "w" connection until you have to. Opening it with
"w" will erase everything in the file -- as you've seen :-). In
pseudo code you want to:

open the file (read only)
read the file contents into a string
close the (read only) file

compare the contents string and your check value

if they're equal
  - open a write connection
  - write the value
  - close the connection
  - include the file
else, if they're not equal
  - include the file

So, you do your read stuff first, then, if you need to overwrite the
file you open a "w" connection, otherwise you don't need to fopen() a
write connection at all.

HTH
Andrew

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