Question

Can anyone assist in the following. I have a field “notes” inside a mysql table but need to separate it to a new table.

The note is currently in this format:

Added by username1 on 22/10/2012 3:50pm

The note is here

Added by username2 on 20/10/2012 12:29pm

The note is here and so on

There’s 2 notes here as an example. How can I get this into an array thus:

[0] => Array(
        [0] username1
        [1] 22/10/2012 3:50pm
        [2] Note1
    )
[1] => Array(
        [0] username2
        [1] 20/10/2012 12:29pm
        [2] Note2
    )

I tried using preg_split but it only returns note if split by “Added by username on date-time” because I can’t use “Added by” on its own to split it as the note itself might contain “Added by”

What would be be the best way to do this?

Thanks

Answer 1

Try this

// Get the data from the database
$myData = $row['notes'];

// Split this into an array
$data = explode("\r\n", $myData);

// $data has each line as an element of the array
$key   = -1;
$final = array();
foreach ($data as $element)
{
    // Check if this is the first row
    if (strpos($element, "Added by") > 0)
    {
        $key = $key + 1;
        // This is the first header row. Get the info from it
        $tmp   = str_replace("Added by", "", $element);
        $parts = explode(" on ", $tmp)

        // Add them to the final array
        // Username
        $final[$key][0] = trim($parts[0]);
        // Date
        $final[$key][1] = trim($parts[1]);

        // Initialize the note element
        $final[$key][2] = '';
    }
    else
    {
        // We don't have the 'Added On' so add this as a note.
        $final[$key][2] .= $element;
    }
}

This should give you the base to work on. You can also check for empty lines in the notes element $final[$key][2] .= $element;