(newbie) altering variables in external files

[hikoboshi]

Sorry to take up your precious time with such a trivial matter, but could someone let me know how to (if it's possible) increment a variable in a text file.

Say if visitors.txt had "visitors=2 3" in it, how would I increment this from a php script? The only solution to this as far as I can see with my 5 days of php experience would be to re-write the file using fopen(). It seems to me there should be an easier way.

Many thanks to anyone who replies.

[Sepharoth]

have you tried using $visitors++

[kovik]

No, you'd need to overwrite it. You open the file, extract the variable from the text, increment that variable and insert it back into the contents, then overwrite the file with the new contents.

This is why we don't use files... We use databases.

[pradeepjain]

Sorry to take up your precious time with such a trivial matter, but could someone let me know how to (if it's possible) increment a variable in a text file.

Say if visitors.txt had "visitors=2 3" in it, how would I increment this from a php script? The only solution to this as far as I can see with my 5 days of php experience would be to re-write the file using fopen(). It seems to me there should be an easier way.

Many thanks to anyone who replies.

HII..
CAN U SEND ME UR CODE...BCOS I NEED A CODE SIMILAR TO URS ..WRITING TO THE FILE