What I am really trying to do is to search my database after a word is input into a form and bring back the links to the files but im not sure how to do this at this point.

At the moment I am just trying to test getting the data from the database. I had to serialize my data to get it into the database, but now when i call the data from the database i just get;

'0'] =dates.txt ['1'] =s:0:""; ['0'] =dates.txt ['1'] =s:6:"friday"; ['0'] =dates.txt ['1'] =s:6:"monday"; ['0'] =dates.txt ['1'] =s:7:"tuesday";


for example. I want to get rid of this s:7: at the front so I can do a query on the actual words as this isnt working. I know i need to use unserialize but I dont know how to use this within my code as I have tried various ways.

This is my code. Any help much appreciated

function echo_array(&$_some_array)
{ echo "<tr>";
foreach ($_some_array as $name => $value)
{ echo "<td><font face=arial size=2> ['$name'] =</td>";
echo "<td><font face=arial size=2> $value </td>"; }
echo "<td><font face=arial size=2> </td></tr>\n"; }

$query = "SELECT * FROM webdata";

echo "<table width = 1% border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>";
$result = mysql_query($query);
$num = mysql_num_rows($result);
echo "<p>'$query' returns $num rows:<p>\r\n";
while ($row = mysql_fetch_row($result))
echo_array($row,'$row');
echo "</table>\r\n";

Your error have been to serialize the datas into the DB.
The serialization is a process that turns a data type into a string representation.

If you wanted to store a flexible data structure, you should have created a normalized DB schema, and stored each of the object values in the db individually.

The db cannot search (or with much difficulty, and very unoptimized) because the structure of the datas you saved is not usable as is, it needs to be processed again to be usable.

You should have 2 tables for the datas: 1 with the "header", another with the fields.
As PHP is not strongly typed, you can use a varchar type for each variables, like this

create table header(
  headerId integer not null auto_increment,
  primary key headerId
);

create table vals(
  headerFk integer not null,
  valName varchar(255) not null,
  val varchar(255) not null,
  primary key (headerFk, valName)
);

With this, you can create 1 header, and attach as many variable with their values as you need.

Looking for a particular value is a matter of a select in the vals table, which will return you an headerFk value, and allows you to get back every variables attached to that header.

Once you will have separated your structure that way, you won't need any data mangling or (un)serialization to lookup your datas.

Thanks for your reply. I can see that working better, but however im not sure how to get my data into two tables like that. As before I was just putting it straight into one table by scanning through the directory and inserting every word and filename using this code.

PHP Code:

function opening($file)
{
$pattern = "(\.txt$)| (\.php$)";
if(eregi($pattern, $file)){
 $file_handle = fopen($file, "r");
 $contents = file($file);
 while (!feof($file_handle)){
  $data = fgets($file_handle);
  $words = explode(' ' , $data);
  $duplicates = array_unique($words);
  sort($duplicates);
  foreach($duplicates as $word)
  {
   $word = serialize($word);
   $sql = "INSERT INTO webdata VALUES('$file','$word')";
   if (mysql_query($sql))
   {
    print "successful <p>";
   }
  }
}
}
else {
echo "Cant open that file type <p>"; }
}
 
function getfiles($dirname=".")
{
$pattern = "(\.txt$)| (\.php$)";
$file = array($file);
if($handle = opendir($dirname)) {
 while(false !== ($file = readdir($handle))){
  if(eregi($pattern, $file) || is_dir($file))
  echo "$file <br />";
  opening($file);
 
}
closedir($handle);
}
return($file);
} 


In that case, I suggest that the db schema to be changed to

create table header(
  headerId integer not null auto_increment,
  fileName varchar(255) not null,
  primary key headerId
);

create table vals(
  headerFk integer not null,
  word varchar(255) not null,
  primary key (headerFk, word)
);

And as for your code:

PHP Code:

<?php
function opening($file){
  $pattern = "(\.txt$)| (\.php$)";
  if(eregi($pattern, $file)){
    $file_handle = fopen($file, "r");
    $contents = file($file);
    //we create the header if the file is opened ok and not empty
    if(sizeof($contents)>0){
      $query_header="insert into header (fileName) values ('$file')";
      mysql_query($query_header);
      //we get back the header id value
      $headerId=mysql_insert_id();
    }
    while (!feof($file_handle)){
      $data = fgets($file_handle);
      $words = explode(' ' , $data);
      $duplicates = array_unique($words);
      sort($duplicates);
      foreach($duplicates as $word){
        $word = serialize($word);
        $sql = "INSERT INTO vals (headerFk, word) VALUES($headerId, '$word')";
        if (mysql_query($sql)){
          print "successful <p>";
        }
      }
    }
  }
  else{
    echo "Cant open that file type <p>"; }
  }
 
function getfiles($dirname="."){
  $pattern = "(\.txt$)| (\.php$)";
  $file = array($file);
  if($handle = opendir($dirname)) {
    while(false !== ($file = readdir($handle))){
      if(eregi($pattern, $file) || is_dir($file)){
        echo "$file <br />";
      }
    opening($file);
    }
    closedir($handle);
  }
  return($file);
} 

?>

I haven't tested anything, it's all theoretical for now.
You may need to correct something here or there, but this should help you to go on the right track.