I would like to build a script for a restaurant menu, to show daily specials.

for example:

www.restaurant.com/menu.php?day=monday

would search a text file for the specials that are served on monday.
What is the best way of approaching this? I am a complete php newbie, and the script I have written so far doesn't seem to work.

Any suggestions?
Thanks

Not really sure why you would want to store these in a text file...

But if you really want to do it like that, just open the file, read it into a variable, then process it (and close it). How you wish to process the file (ie, search for the specials) depends entirely on how the data is stored in the file.

If you are refering to the query string in the URL, (ie, '?day=monday'), you can find what day has been specified by looking in the $_GET['day'] variable which is a predefined variable. Have a look here for more info: http://uk2.php.net/manual/en/reserve....variables.get

Regards,
Joe.

Sounds like a college assignment to me that does.

Ibbo

really, you'd better create a database with a restraunt menu and add a separate field marking that the entry is "special"
it can be an enum field:
special enum('yes', 'no')

then search for the records with appropriate date and add condition AND special="yes"
this is the right approach for your task

agree. it's better to use a database in such a situation...

Sometimes, for such small amounts of data, a relational database is overkill and would just slow down the server more than help. As for this being a school project I too am weary to give you much so I will tell you to look here http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.filesystem.php and you can figure it out from there.

Not a school project actually...
I'm helping out a friend with a company website - he's wants something that he can easily edit without me having to teach him html. I thought if I had a text file he could change, it could be used to build a table in a web page.