Question

I’m wondering if there is an accepted method to convert a tab delimited text file to XML, so that it can be imported in Adobe Flex. I would prefer to use PHP to achieve this.

Thanks

Edit:

The tab delimited text file I am looking to convert is in the format

Refnumber  Location    Name     Age    
123        North America    Steve    32   

And I am looking to convert to

<data>
<refnumber> 123 </refnumber> 
<location> North America </location>
<name> Steve </name>
<age> 32 </age>
</data>

Answer 1

You can iterate the file line by line and write the contents with XMLWriter

XmlWriter Example (demo)

$xmlWriter = new XMLWriter();
$xmlWriter->openUri('/path/to/destination.xml');
$xmlWriter->setIndent(true);
$xmlWriter->startDocument('1.0', 'UTF-8');
$xmlWriter->startElement('root');

$tsvFile = new SplFileObject('filename.tsv');
$tsvFile->setFlags(SplFileObject::READ_CSV);
$tsvFile->setCsvControl("\t");
foreach ($tsvFile as $line => $row) {
    if($line > 0) {
        $xmlWriter->startElement('data');
        $xmlWriter->writeElement('refnumber', $row[0]);
        $xmlWriter->writeElement('location', $row[1]);
        $xmlWriter->writeElement('name', $row[2]);
        $xmlWriter->writeElement('age', $row[3]);
        $xmlWriter->endElement();
    }
}
$xmlWriter->endElement();
$xmlWriter->endDocument();

Using the XmlWriter has the added benefit that it will tell you when you are trying to write illegal content for the XML elements. If you know there is only valid data in your tsv file, you can also just use a template and write that to another file.

Template Example (demo)

$tsvFile = new SplFileObject('filename.tsv');
$tsvFile->setFlags(SplFileObject::READ_CSV);
$tsvFile->setCsvControl("\t");

$template = <<< TPL
<data>
    <refnumber>%d</refnumber> 
    <location>%s</location>
    <name>%s</name>
    <age>%d</age>
</data>
TPL;

$destFile = new SplFileObject('destination.xml', 'w+');
$destFile->fwrite('<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>');
$destFile->fwrite("\n<root>\n");
foreach ($tsvFile as $line => $row) {
    if($line > 0) {
        $destFile->fwrite(vsprintf($template, $row));
    }
}
$destFile->fwrite('</root>');

Links

• SplFileObject – The SplFileObject class offers an object oriented interface for a file.
• Iterating File Contents with Spl
• vsprintf — Return a formatted string from an array of arguments