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Regular expressions help parsing a txt file in PHP

I need the following data parsed and each value put into a variable. You'll notice the variable amount of spaces and the extra nonimportant data at the end. This is how the file reads:
ticket open time type lot curr open sl tp close time close swap profit pp
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#206237 2001.01.02 19:02 balance 0.0 0.00 0.00 0.00 2001.01.02 19:02 0.00 0.00 10000.00 0 0.00 0.00 "" 0
#206238 2001.03.22 06:59 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4208 1.4258 1.4158 2001.03.23 02:00 1.4236 -1.84 -99.84 -28 0.00 994.56 "" 0
#206239 2001.03.26 02:00 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4272 1.4322 1.4222 2001.03.26 03:43 1.4322 0.00 -175.00 -50 0.00 999.04 "" 0
#206242 2001.03.27 12:02 buy 0.1 GBPUSD 1.4350 1.4340 0.0000 2001.03.27 12:05 1.4340 0.00 -7.00 -10 0.00 200.90 "" 0
#206241 2001.03.27 08:59 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4337 1.4387 1.4287 2001.03.27 13:42 1.4287 0.00 175.00 50 0.00 1003.59 "" 0
#206243 2001.03.27 20:59 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4331 1.4381 1.4281 2001.03.28 06:36 1.4281 -1.84 173.16 50 0.00 1003.17 "" 0
#206244 2001.03.28 11:00 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4318 1.4368 1.4268 2001.03.28 12:12 1.4368 0.00 -175.00 -50 0.00 1002.26 "" 0
#206247 2001.04.04 17:59 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4324 1.4374 1.4274 2001.04.04 22:44 1.4374 0.00 -175.00 -50 0.00 1002.68 "" 0
#206245 2001.04.03 20:45 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4330 1.4380 1.4280 2001.04.05 03:49 1.4380 -7.35 -182.35 -50 0.00 1003.10 "" 0
#206246 2001.04.04 06:59 buy 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4344 1.4294 1.4394 2001.04.05 03:52 1.4394 2.36 177.36 50 0.00 1004.08 "" 0
#206248 2001.04.04 23:00 buy 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4371 1.4321 1.4421 2001.04.05 06:24 1.4321 2.36 -172.64 -50 0.00 1005.97 "" 0
#206251 2001.04.16 09:59 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4327 1.4377 1.4277 2001.04.16 09:59 1.4330 0.00 -10.50 -3 0.00 1002.89 "" 0
#206250 2001.04.13 08:57 buy 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4375 1.4325 1.4425 2001.04.16 10:14 1.4325 1.58 -173.42 -50 0.00 1006.25 "" 0
#206252 2001.04.17 02:59 buy 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4403 1.4353 1.4453 2001.04.17 07:09 1.4353 0.00 -175.00 -50 0.00 1008.21 "" 0
#206253 2001.04.17 08:00 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4310 1.4360 1.4260 2001.04.17 15:59 1.4292 0.00 63.00 18 0.00 1001.70 "" 0
#206240 2001.03.30 06:27 buy 0.1 GBPUSD 1.4245 0.0000 0.0000 2001.04.17 15:59 1.4289 2.99 33.79 44 0.00 199.43 "" 0
#206254 2001.04.18 09:59 sell 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4230 1.4280 1.4180 2001.04.18 13:07 1.4280 0.00 -175.00 -50 0.00 996.10 "" 0
#206255 2001.04.19 11:00 buy 0.5 GBPUSD 1.4363 1.4313 1.4392 2001.04.19 14:33 1.4392 0.00 101.50 29 0.00 1005.41 "" 0

Can someone help me write the regular expressions or other method to parse these into variables?

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

TeRReF

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hernst42

You could use something like this to spilt up the columns:

$rowdata = preg_split('/\s+/', $line);
$i = 0;
$ticket = $rowdata[$i++];
$opentime = $rowdata[$i++] ." ". $rowdata[$i++];
if ($rowdata[$i] == 'balance') {
$type = $rowdata[$i++];
$lot = $rowdata[$i++];
$cur = '';
} else {
$type = $rowdata[$i++];
$lot = $rowdata[$i++];
$cur = $rowdata[$i++];
}
$open = $rowdata[$i++];
...

One problem with your code TeRReF is that it could not handle the first balance line correctly.

Cornelia Yoder

If you are doing one row at a time, this will give you an array of the values in the row.

$arrayofvalues = explode(" ",$inputstring);

http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.explode.php

netmunky

it's a fixed width format, and unless you can guarantee all fields exist under certain conditions, it's best to stick to the fixed width format.
you're probably better off using http://www.php.net/preg-match
$results = array();
$keys = array( "ticket", "datetime", ...etc... );

.. while loop through reading of file ...
$pattern = "/(.{10})(.{16})(.{11})...etc.../"
preg_match( $pattern, $line, $matches );
array_push( $results, array_combine( $keys, $matches ) );

SOLUTION