Dat file download adding trailing spaces

[mathceleb]

If I do this code with a .dat file, it inserts spaces at the end of the file. Do I need something special for the header for .dat files?

PHP Code:

// prompt save/download
$output_file_name="information.dat";
$file_string="hello world";
header("Pragma: public");
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control: private");
header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$output_file_name");
header("Accept-Ranges: bytes");
echo $file_string;
// end prompt save/download 


[MattF]

You're viewing the downloaded text in which editor?

[mathceleb]

Originally Posted by MattF

You're viewing the downloaded text in which editor?

Both PSPad and Notepad.

I even ran a check to measure the length of the string going out immediately before the download to make sure it matched what it should be.

[MattF]

First thing I'd try, if you have acces to a *nix box, is checking the file in vi, to make sure the editors aren't adding any erroneous padding. The other possibility is encoding. Might be worth trying a binary type for the download:

header('Content-Transfer-Encoding: binary');

[mathceleb]

I tried that as well. There is 23 extra spaces being tacked on to the last record. If I loop through 50 of those records above, 49 of them are great, and the 50th record has that strange space padding at the end.

[mathceleb]

I even tried this:

PHP Code:

    $xtot=strlen($file_string);
    
    for ($x=$xtot;$x>=0;$x--){
    $cur=substr($file_string,$x,1);
    $tout=ord($cur);
       // eliminate spaces, nulls, carriage returns, and line breaks
       if ($tout!=0 && $tout!=10 && $tout!=13 && $tout!=32){
         $file_string=substr($file_string,0,$x+1);
         break;
       } 
    } 


It picks up the right string, but saving down, it adds spaces. I'm viewing this in Notepad.

[mathceleb]

This worked below. Not ideal, but it gets it done quickly. Basically, pull the contents back into php, chop it, and then send it back down to the same file.

PHP Code:

$fname="information.dat";
$tempfile=file_get_contents($fname);
$tempfile=chop($tempfile)."\r\n";

$fh = fopen($fname, 'w') or die("Cannot open file");
fwrite($fh, $tempfile);
fclose($fh); 


Note: This only works if you write the file and don't prompt the save/open menu.