Parse Print_r output and convert into CSV

These days I seem to looking a lot a print_r output. For the uninitiated, print_r is a handy PHP function to allow you to print the contents of an array in a neat, readable format.

When I create a PHP script, I generally output the progress of this script into a text file.
php somescript.php > output.txt

Typically, I collect data in arrays and I use print_r to see what’s going on.

Sometimes depending on what’s in this data, I may need to reuse it. I could run the script again, but this time serialize the data, or convert the array into a CSV string and save to its own file.

However in the case where you script takes hours to complete, it’s much quicker to parse the print_r data and create an array from this data. From there I can create a CSV string, and store this data away to be used later.

Here is what I use.

[source language=“php“]
$file_in = "/output.txt";
$file_out = "/item-ids.csv";

$fh = fopen( $file_in, ‚r‘ );
$file_contents = fread( $fh, filesize( $file_in ) );
fclose($fh);

$original_array = print_r_reverse( $file_contents );
$csv_string = array_2_csv( $original_array );

$fh = fopen( $file_out, ‚w‘ );
fputs( $fh, $csv_string );
fclose( $fh );

function print_r_reverse($in) {
$lines = explode("\n", trim($in));
if (trim($lines[0]) != ‚Array‘) {
// bottomed out to something that isn’t an array
return $in;
} else {
// this is an array, lets parse it
if (preg_match("/(\s{5,})\(/", $lines[1], $match)) {
// this is a tested array/recursive call to this function
// take a set of spaces off the beginning
$spaces = $match[1];
$spaces_length = strlen($spaces);
$lines_total = count($lines);
for ($i = 0; $i < $lines_total; $i++) {
if (substr($lines[$i], 0, $spaces_length) == $spaces) {
$lines[$i] = substr($lines[$i], $spaces_length);
}
}
}
array_shift($lines); // Array
array_shift($lines); // (
array_pop($lines); // )
$in = implode("\n", $lines);
// make sure we only match stuff with 4 preceding spaces (stuff for this array and not a nested one)
preg_match_all("/^\s{4}\[(.+?)\] \=\> /m", $in, $matches, PREG_OFFSET_CAPTURE | PREG_SET_ORDER);
$pos = array();
$previous_key = “;
$in_length = strlen($in);
// store the following in $pos:
// array with key = key of the parsed array’s item
// value = array(start position in $in, $end position in $in)
foreach ($matches as $match) {
$key = $match[1][0];
$start = $match[0][1] + strlen($match[0][0]);
$pos[$key] = array($start, $in_length);
if ($previous_key != “) $pos[$previous_key][1] = $match[0][1] – 1;
$previous_key = $key;
}
$ret = array();
foreach ($pos as $key => $where) {
// recursively see if the parsed out value is an array too
$ret[$key] = print_r_reverse(substr($in, $where[0], $where[1] – $where[0]));
}
return $ret;
}
}

function array_2_csv($array) {
$csv = array();
foreach ($array as $item) {
if (is_array($item)) {
$csv[] = array_2_csv($item);
} else {
$csv[] = $item;
}
}
return implode(‚,‘, $csv);
}
[/source]

Found the print_r_reverse function here.
Found the array_2_csv function here.

NOTE: For best results, make sure your $file_in file contains a simple flat array.

So if your script output looks like…
[source language=“php“]
Some debug messages…
blah blah blah
Array
(
[item_ids] => Array
(
[0] => 1031393
[1] => 1941666
[2] => 1986147
[3] => 2047279
[4] => 2054282
[5] => 2065078
[6] => 2067484
[7] => 2012085
[8] => 2096719
[9] => 2206253
[10] => 2168771
[11] => 2211019
[12] => 2233896
[13] => 2264443
[14] => 2275373
[15] => 2320905
[16] => 2359348
[17] => 2397892
[18] => 2451768
[19] => 2576203
[20] => 2589806
)

)
[/source]

You just want the item_ids, so copy them into a new file that looks like…
[source language=“php“]
Array
(
[0] => 1031393
[1] => 1941666
[2] => 1986147
[3] => 2047279
[4] => 2054282
[5] => 2065078
[6] => 2067484
[7] => 2012085
[8] => 2096719
[9] => 2206253
[10] => 2168771
[11] => 2211019
[12] => 2233896
[13] => 2264443
[14] => 2275373
[15] => 2320905
[16] => 2359348
[17] => 2397892
[18] => 2451768
[19] => 2576203
[20] => 2589806
)
[/source]