Question

Suppose that I have the PHP function as below:

function.php

<?php
function getDataInFile($PMTA_FILE){
    $PMTA_DATE = date("Y-m-d");
    $lineFromText = explode("\n", $PMTA_FILE);
    $number_bar_charts = 13;
    $row = 0;
    $cate = "";
    $total ="";
    $fail = "";
    $mailSuc = "";
    $title = "";
       foreach($lineFromText as $line){
            if($row < $number_bar_charts){
              $words = explode(";",$line);
              $dateTime .= ','.$words[0];
                if($title == ""){
                   $title = $words[0];
                }
                $cate .= ','."'$words[5]'";
                $total .= ','.$words[6];
                $fail .= ','.$words[7];
                $mailSuc .= ','.((int)$words[6] - (int)$words[7]);                          
            $row++;
      }   
     }

}


?>

This is code below that I call the function to use in getFile.php.

<?php 
include("include/function.php");
$PMTA_DATE = date("Y-m-d");
getDataInFile("../stats_domain_recepteur.affinitead.net.".$PMTA_DATE.".txt");

?>

In fact, it can not read data from the file, I got the error messages Undefined variable: dateTime in C:\wamp\www\chat\include\function.php on line 15,Notice: Undefined offset: 5 in C:\wamp\www\chat\include\function.php on line 19….

I do not know how to fix this, Anyone help me please, Thanks.

Answer 1

These are Notices only. They are not terrible errors that will blow up your code, but some code reviewers would make you fix them. PHP is just giving you a polite nudge, but will work anyhow. Fatal errors are the big, bad problems that will stop PHP in its tracks.

Here are the problems PHP found…

1. You’re appending data to the string $dateTime on each iteration. On the first pass through the variable doesn’t yet exist. PHP doesn’t really care, but will issue a warning. To get rid of that problem, define $dateTime before you use it.

   $dateTime = null;

2. The second problem is an array out of bounds exception. You are trying to do something with $words[5] when that array index doesn’t exist. In general, you should check that array indexes, variables and other fun stuff actually exist before you try to use them.

   $cate .= sprintf(",'%s'", isset($word[5]) ? $word[5] : '');

If you don’t want to see Notices and Warnings reported in the error log, see PHP Error Handling to learn how to set which error levels you want to see in your log.

You should also read all about the file_get_contents function to actually get the file in the first place!