The fopen() function is used
to open files in PHP.
Opening a File
The
fopen() function is used to open files in PHP.The first parameter of this function contains the name of the file to be opened and the second parameter specifies in which mode the file should be opened:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r");
?>
</body>
</html>
The
file may be opened in one of the following modes:<body>
<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r");
?>
</body>
</html>
Modes
|
Description
|
r
|
Read only. Starts at the beginning of the
file
|
r+
|
Read/Write. Starts at the beginning of
the file
|
w
|
Write only. Opens and clears the contents
of file; or creates a new file if it doesn't exist
|
w+
|
Read/Write. Opens and clears the contents
of file; or creates a new file if it doesn't exist
|
a
|
Append. Opens and writes to the end of
the file or creates a new file if it doesn't exist
|
a+
|
Read/Append. Preserves file content by
writing to the end of the file
|
x
|
Write only. Creates a new file. Returns
FALSE and an error if file already exists
|
x+
|
Read/Write. Creates a new file. Returns
FALSE and an error if file already exists
|
Example
The
following example generates a message if the fopen() function is unable to open
the specified file:
<html>
<body>
<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
?>
</body>
</html>
<body>
<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
?>
</body>
</html>
Closing a File
The
fclose() function is used to close an open file:
<?php
$file = fopen("test.txt","r");
//some code to be executed
fclose($file);
?>
$file = fopen("test.txt","r");
//some code to be executed
fclose($file);
?>
Check End-of-file
The
feof() function checks if the "end-of-file" (EOF) has been reached.The feof() function is useful for looping through data of unknown length.
Note: You cannot read from files opened in w, a, and x mode!
if (feof($file)) echo
"End of file";
Reading a File Line by Line
The
fgets() function is used to read a single line from a file.Note: After a call to this function the file pointer has moved to the next line.
Example
The
example below reads a file line by line, until the end of file is reached:
<?php
$file = fopen("welcome.txt", "r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
//Output a line of the file until the end is reached
while(!feof($file))
{
echo fgets($file). "<br />";
}
fclose($file);
?>
$file = fopen("welcome.txt", "r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
//Output a line of the file until the end is reached
while(!feof($file))
{
echo fgets($file). "<br />";
}
fclose($file);
?>
Reading a File Character by Character
The
fgetc() function is used to read a single character from a file.Note: After a call to this function the file pointer moves to the next character.
Example
The
example below reads a file character by character, until the end of file is
reached:
<?php
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
while (!feof($file))
{
echo fgetc($file);
}
fclose($file);
?>
$file=fopen("welcome.txt","r") or exit("Unable to open file!");
while (!feof($file))
{
echo fgetc($file);
}
fclose($file);
?>
