updating a file in specific part only in php -

i need update file using php

sample file:

#start#  no. of records: 2  name: name, age: 18, date: 2013-07-11||  name: 2nd name, age: 28, date: 2013-07-11||  #end# 

i need edit 'no. of records' on each time add record on file. , record needs before '#end#'

i'm using

$handle = fopen($file, 'a'); $data = ....... fwrite($handle, $data);  

to add records

how can edit 'no. of records' & add data before '#end#'?

instead of modifying file parse it, change data in php rewrite file after that.

to achieve this, firstly create function parses input php arrays:

function parse($file) {     $records = array();     foreach(file($file) $line) {         if(preg_match('~^name: (.*),~', $line, $matches)) {             $record = array('name' => $matches[1]);         }         if(preg_match('~^age: (.*),~', $line, $matches)) {             $record ['age'] = $matches[1];         }            if(preg_match('~^date: (.*)\|\|~', $line, $matches)) {             $record ['date'] = $matches[1];             $records [] = $record;         }        }        return $records; } 

secondly create function flattens arrays same file format again:

function flatten($records, $file) {     $str  = '#start#';     $str .= "\n\n";     $str .= 'no. of records: ' . count($records) . "\n\n";     foreach($records $record) {         $str .= 'name: ' . $record['name'] . ",\n";         $str .= 'age: ' . $record['name'] . ",\n";         $str .= 'date: ' . $record['name'] . "||\n\n";     }     file_put_contents($file, $str . '#end#'); } 

then use this:

$records = parse('your.file'); var_dump($records); $records []= array(     'name' => 'hek2mgl',     'age' => '36',     'date' => '07/11/2013' );  flatten($records, 'your.file');