Concatenating in php code

Question

I've tried several different variations of concatenating the input from the text boxes, but none of them worked. Can anyone help by show me how to concatenate all of these on one line (back to back)?

HTML

<form method="post" action="sample.php">

<p>My Information
<br />City State  <input type="text" name="item1" size="30">
<br />State Name   <input type="text" name="item2" size="30">
<br />County Name    <input type="text" name="item3" size="30">

</p>

<input type="submit" value="Submit Information">

</form>

PHP

<?php

print "<h4>Geographic Location<b/h4>>";
$filename = 'data/'.'sample.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, 'w');   //w opens the file for writing
$cntr = 1;
while(true)
{
    $item_name = 'item'.$cntr;
    $item = $_POST[$item_name];
    if (empty($item))
    {
        break;
    }
    $cntr++;
    print "Item: ".$item."<br />";
    $output_line = $item."\n";
    fwrite($fp, $output_line);
}

Answer 1

assuming this is the whole form this can be greatly simplified, there is no need for any loop:

print "<h4>Geographic Location<b/h4>>";
$filename = 'data/'.'sample.txt';
$fp = fopen($filename, 'w');   //w opens the file for writing
$output_line = $_POST['item1'].' '.$_POST['item2'].' '.$_POST['item3']; //create the string to write to file 
print "Item: ".$output_line."<br />"; //display to the user
fwrite($fp, $output_line); //write to the file

changing item 1-3 to more descriptive names is recommended