Getting rid from last four empty lines in a string

Question

I have an SQL file on Unix that I'm getting with PHP, cutting it from start and from the end and returning it into a textarea with AJAX. The file is:

Set LINESIZE 1000
set timing on
set FEEDBACK off
SET PAGESIZE 50000
set COLSEP |
set trim on
set RECSEPCHAR ~

select * from tbvalid_value where discrete_code like '%  %' and DISCRETE_CODE != 'U - Unreturned  and billed'
;

exit;

after the exit; i have another blank line.

What I want to return is only the select statement:

select * from tbvalid_value where discrete_code like '% %' and DISCRETE_CODE != 'U - Unreturned and billed'

To do this, firstly I'm chopping the first 8 rows with this function:

function str_chop_lines($str, $lines = 8) {
    return implode("\n", array_slice(explode("\n", $str), $lines));
};

$sql = str_chop_lines($sqlString);

This cuts all the Set Statements and the blank 8th line.

Then, I want to get rid from the last part of the string (from the ; to the exit;). For this I'm using this:

$finalSql = substr($sql, 0, strpos($sql, ';'));

But when I return the string to the client's side textarea, I get 4 empty blank lines at the end of it, as seen in this picture (the red lines were added by me to illustrate the 4 blank lines):

Blank Lines

I've tried to trim these lines with different methods:

$sqlReturnByAjax = substr($finalSql, 0, strrpos($finalSql, "\n"));

$sqlReturnByAjax = str_replace('/n/n', '/n', $finalSql);

$sqlReturnByAjax = rtrim($finalSql);

But non of these worked.
What am I missing ?

@AmalMurali `string(110) "select * from tbvalid_value where discrete_code like '% %' and DISCRETE_CODE != 'U - Unreturned and billed' "` — Alon Adler, Nov 19 '13 at 15:33
The `textarea` is empty before the AJAX returns the string, so why I see 4 new lines on it after ? — Alon Adler, Nov 19 '13 at 15:36
@Alon_A: So what's the issue, exactly? Are you not able to retrieve the required string from the text? — Amal Murali, Nov 19 '13 at 15:37
@AmalMurali issue is that after the text, i get 4 empty lines on the `textarea`, I dont understand where those lines come from ? — Alon Adler, Nov 19 '13 at 15:39
@Alon_A: Is it visible when you view the page source? Can you copy-paste that here? I'm not sure what these characters are. — Amal Murali, Nov 19 '13 at 15:40
AmalMurali the OP has mentioned throughout its from **AJAX** — Lawrence Cherone, Nov 19 '13 at 15:42
Well, as a solution I just trim the string from the client side using Javascript `replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g,'')`. But I still don't get why its being returned with empty rows from the first place... — Alon Adler, Nov 19 '13 at 16:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 19 '13 at 15:32

1

Why not just simply trim the string?

echo trim($yourString);

It removes newlines, spaces, etc from the beginning and end of the line. Trim

answered Nov 19 '13 at 15:32

Rogue

11,105
5
45
71

It still adds 4 empty rows to the `textarea` – Alon Adler Nov 19 '13 at 16:04
echo your variables throughout, you should use trim() on whatever variable has the whitespace on it. – Rogue Nov 19 '13 at 16:06
I just use Javascript to trim the string after the response is back from the PHP side... Maybe I've missed something but that handles it ;0) – Alon Adler Nov 19 '13 at 16:08

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 19 '13 at 15:40

0

If the contents of the file on the server is

Set LINESIZE 1000
set timing on
set FEEDBACK off
SET PAGESIZE 50000
set COLSEP |
set trim on
set RECSEPCHAR ~

select * from tbvalid_value where discrete_code like '%  %' and DISCRETE_CODE != 'U - Unreturned  and billed'
;

exit;

and you only want the line that starts with the SELECT statement, you could use PHP's file() to read file into an array of lines, then find the one you need. E.g.:

$sql = '';
$file = file('/path/to/file', FILE_IGNORE_NEWLINES);

foreach($file as $line) {
  if(strpos($line, 'select') === 0) {
    $sql = $line;
    break;
  }
}

answered Nov 19 '13 at 15:40

marekful

14,986
6
37
59

How would this help? You're `break`ing out of the loop on the first iteration itself, so `$sql` would contain the first line of the file, which is not what the OP wants. – Amal Murali Nov 19 '13 at 15:42
The statement can consist more then 1 line, i dont know the number of lines for each statement. I only know I dont want the first 8 rows and the last `;` and `exit;`. – Alon Adler Nov 19 '13 at 15:43

Getting rid from last four empty lines in a string

2 Answers2