You can use the Microsoft ODBC Text driver to access flat files and perform SQL Queries on it - can be REALLY slow on big files though (no indexes) :(
Alternatively - write a script that pulls the flat file into a proper database table :) Hope this helps -- Richard Allsebrook Applications and Web Development "John Negretti" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:47D4D382C169C84AADDC68C0600917992FDD1A@;CSAN0MS01.corp.cox.com... Hello All, I am somewhat new to PHP and I have a question relating to FLAT FILE databases. First let me give an introduction to my question. I used to work at a company (www.miva.com) where we developed our own scripting language "Miva Script", so my only experience with PHP was for comparison and such. The company was not doing so good and was barley afloat, so I left. In my efforts to find a new scripting language I choose PHP over ColdFusion, even though Miva Script was so similar to ColdFusion. I am loving PHP, I never realized just how extensive PHP is. Now I am at a big company where "red tape" has to be dealt with before I could get access to a database server. With the Miva Script language it has it's own built-in database (dBASE-DBF), so databases were never a problem with web development. So, I am stuck with either using PHP and finding a solution "or" reverting to Miva Script, which I do NOT want to do, of course I want to stay with PHP. I have been doing some research on google.com and such and have not found too much information on PHP with Flat File or DBF databases. I did find some PHP scripts working with Flat File databases, but not really what I need. Does anyone have any suggestions, or is PHP mostly just for MySQL and such. I am developing some PHP classes/functions that are utilizing "file()" and "array()" to read and edit my flat files. It's not perfected yet and I am running into difficulties here and there and this is why am I asking for any opinions or comments on available resources. When I get done with it I'll post it for free at www.ideablue.com (my personal site). Well, I do give thanks in advance for any help. NOTE: I think PHP is a great language and I do hope to stick with it. There are many great resources like www.phpbuilder.com, www.phpbeginner.com and the extensive documentation at www.php.net. Thanks to all that help us new PHP developers. John Negretti Web Applications Developer Cox Communications www.cox.com -- PHP Database Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
