How do you use a txt file's file list as an array variable?

Question

Basically my issue is, I have a handful of .json files that I need to combine into one. Thankfully that code is already done with and works great. My problem is, now I need to be able to set which files need combined easily without manually rewriting the code each time.

When uploading json files, my server automatically adds the file name to a txt file. All in the same directory for ease of use.

Say I have 3 json files in a single directory, 1.json, 2.json, & 3.json.

It will auto populate a file called 'items.txt' in that directory with all the .json filename in the below format.

'1.json','2.json','3.json'

Here is my php code, mainly focusing on the "$urls = array($items);" part:

$array = explode("\n", file_get_contents('items.txt'));
$items = implode($array);

$urls = array($items);
 $jobs = [];
 foreach ($urls as $url){
   $json = json_decode(file_get_contents($url), true);
   array_push($jobs, $json);
 }

 $unique = array();
 foreach ($jobs as $piece) {
    $unique = array_merge($unique, $piece);
 }
 $retour = json_encode($unique);
 print_r($retour);

Unfortunately this returns null. But if I change it to this manually:

$urls = array( '1.json','2.json','3.json');

It works as expected.

This is the output if I do "print_r($items);" :

'1.json','2.json','3.json'

So I know the variable is set correctly. How would I be able to output this variable and use it as the url variable above?

I am sorry if this is hard to understand and I will gladly give more detain if it's needed. I hope this is an easy task and I appreciate the help greatly!

“This is the output if I do "print_r($items);"” - that is one single string value - the print_r of an actual array looks different. $array = explode("\n", file_get_contents('items.txt')); – how many \n do you expect your file to contain? What you have shown looked like one single line of text … — misorude
– misorude, Commented Aug 30, 2019 at 7:08
implode should be implode(', ', $array); you havent specified seperator — Sangita Kendre
– Sangita Kendre, Commented Aug 30, 2019 at 7:09

Nigel Ren · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-30 07:11:53Z

2

As your current file contents is a CSV with ' as the enclosing quote, you can just use str_getcsv()

$urls = str_getcsv(file_get_contents('items.txt'), ",", "'");

Alternatively you could always store the file list as JSON to maintain consistency with the fact you are using JSON files. So the file would then be

[ "1.json", "2.json", "3.json" ]

and

$urls = json_decode(file_get_contents("a.json"), true));

answered Aug 30, 2019 at 7:11

Nigel Ren

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1 Comment

Jason Waltz Over a year ago

Unbelievable I didn't even think of the fact it's basically a CSV. I can't thank you enough.

mur762 · Accepted Answer · 2019-08-30 07:21:31Z

0

You could try with a matching regex like

$re = '/\d+\.json/m';
$str = "'10.json','2.json','3.json'";

preg_match_all($re, $str, $matches, PREG_SET_ORDER, 0);

answered Aug 30, 2019 at 7:21

mur762

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