Importing txt files into MySQL database

[Kim Jensen]

For a long time I've been considering converting all the information on my homepage from php based to database based but I've always put it off because I have no idea how to go about doing this.

My main problem is that I have thousands of .txt files that have information like in this example that are imported into a webpage using php.

-----
homersimpson.txt

firstname=Homer
lastname=Simpson
maritalstatus=Married
relatives=Marge (wife), Bart (son), Lisa (daugter), Maggie (daughter)... etc
hometown=Springfield
-----

and so on. Sometimes the order in the files is different and "lastname=" comes before "firstname=" and so on which makes it practically impossible for me to turn the files into a tab or commaseparated files.

Now what I'm interested in knowing is whether or not there is a way for me to import such txt files into MySQL so that the first names, last names and so on go in the right tables? And if there is how is it done? Is there a tuturial of some kind or something that might help me?

Thanks in advance.