PHP Versions Question posted in
You can find a list of all versions here.

Php versions – PHP File Handling (Download Counter) Reading file data as a number, writing it as that plus 1

I’m trying to make a download counter in a website for a video game in PHP, but for some reason, instead of incrementing the contents of the downloadcount.txt file by 1, it takes the number, increments it, and appends it to the end of the file. How could I just make it replace the file contents instead of appending it?

Here’s the source:

<?php
    ob_start();
    $newURL = 'versions/v1.0.0aplha/Dungeon1UP.zip';
    //header('Location: '.$newURL);
    //increment download counter
    $file = fopen("downloadcount.txt", "w+") or die("Unable to open file!");
    $content = fread($file,filesize("downloadcount.txt"));
    echo $content;
    $output = (int) $content + 1;
    //$output = 'test';
    fwrite($file, $output);
    fclose($file);
    ob_end_flush();
?>

The number in the file is supposed to increase by one every time, but instead, it gives me numbers like this: 101110121011101310111012101110149.2233720368548E+189.2233720368548E+189.2233720368548E+18

Tags:

4

Answers


  1. 0

    It will be much simpler to use file_get_contents/file_put_contents:

    // update with more precise path to file:
$content = file_get_contents(__DIR__ . "/downloadcount.txt");
echo $content;
$output = (int) $content + 1;
// by default `file_put_contents` overwrites file content
file_put_contents(__DIR__ . "/downloadcount.txt", $output);
    Login or Signup to reply.
  2. 0

    You can get the content, check if the file has data. If not initialise to 0 and then just replace the content.

    $fileContent = file_get_contents("downloadcount.txt");
$content     = (!empty($fileContent) ? $fileContent : 0);
$content++;
file_put_contents('downloadcount.txt', $content);

    Check $str or directly content inside the file

    Login or Signup to reply.
  3. 0

    That appending should just be a typecasting problem, but I would not encourage you to handle counts the file way. In order to count the number of downloads for a file, it’s better to make a database update of a row using transactions to handle concurrency properly, as doing it the file way could compromise accuracy.

    Login or Signup to reply.
  4. 0

    As correctly pointed out in one of the comments, for your specific case you can use fseek ( $file, 0 ) right before writing, such as:

    fseek ( $file, 0 );
fwrite($file, $output);

    Or even simpler you can rewind($file) before writing, this will ensure that the next write happens at byte 0 – ie the start of the file.

    The reason why the file gets appended it is because you’re opening the file in append and truncate mode, that is “w+”. You have to open it in readwrite mode in case you do not want to reset the contents, just “r+” on your fopen, such as:

    fopen("downloadcount.txt", "r+")

    Just make sure the file exists before writing!

    Please see fopen modes here:
    https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php

    And working code here:
    https://bpaste.net/show/iasj

    Login or Signup to reply.
Please signup or login to give your own answer.

Back To Top
Search