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In this article I intend to learn basic file handling mechanism of PHP. File
handling functions in PHP are extremely useful and userfriendly.PHP includes a
lot of built-in functions for handling files and directories. You can read,
write, delete, and get lots of information on files through the use of these
functions.
Let’s we have an examples, how to read, write, append, delete, close and copy a
file in PHP.
Opening a File:
The fopen() function is used to open a files in PHP.
Syntax:
fopen($filename, $mode);
Here, $filename specifies the file
name to be opened and $mode specifies
the mode in which file should be opened.
Example:
In the following example, if file could not be open then it will display ‘Unable
to open file’ message.
<!DOCTYPE
html>
<html>
<head>
<meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
//
Open
file
from specified
path
with
read
only
mode
$file=
fopen("C://Apache Server//htdocs//MySiteFile//test.txt", "r")
or
exit('Unable to open file');
?>
</body>
</html>
Reading a File:
There are lots of method to reading file in PHP such as: fread(),
fgets(),fgetc() etc.
Now let’s see the basic difference between them.
Reading a file line by line:
fgets() function used for reading file line by line in PHP.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE
html>
<html>
<head>
<meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
//
Open
file
from specified
path
with
read
only
mode
$file=
fopen("C://Users//Sachindra//Desktop//wamp.txt", "r") or exit('Unable
to open file');
// use feof() function to check end of file
while (!feof($file)) //this condition check end of file
{
echo fgets($file);
}
echo '</br>'.'<h3>'.'File reading line by line
compelete.'.'</h3>';
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:
After completion of reading file, ‘File reading line by line complete’ message
will be displayed.
Reading a file character by character:
fgetc() function is used for reading file character by character.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE
html>
<html>
<head>
<meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
//
Open
file
from specified
path
with
read
only
mode
$file=
fopen("C://Users//Sachindra//Desktop//wamp.txt", "r") or exit('Unable
to open file');
// use feof() function to check end of file
while (!feof($file)) //this condition check end of file
{
// Reading file character by character
echo fgetc($file);
}
echo '</br>'.'<h3>'.'File reading character by
character compelete.'.'</h3>';
?>
</body>
</html>>
Output:
Reading a file up to specified length:
fread() function is used for file reading up to specified length.
Syntax:
fread($handle, $length) ;
Here, $handle specifies the file name to be read and $length specifies the
length, up to read the file.
Example:
<!DOCTYPE
html>
<html>
<head>
<meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
//
Open
file
from specified
path
with
read
only
mode
$file=
fopen("C://Users//Sachindra//Desktop//wamp.txt", "r") or exit('Unable
to open file');
// filesize function retruns length of file
$content = fread($file, 100);
echo $content;
echo '<h3>'.'</br>'.'File reading complete up to
length 100 !'.'</h3>';
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Copying and Deleting files:
Copy () function is used for copy one file to another one whereas unlink ()
function is used for delete files.
Let’s we have an example, how to copy and delete files in PHP.
Example: Copy file from source file to target file.
<!DOCTYPE
html>
<html>
<head>
<meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
// "C://Users//Sachindra//Desktop//wamp.txt"
source
file
path
copy("C://Users//Sachindra//Desktop//wamp.txt",
"target.txt");
echo
'file copied successfully';
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Now you can see ‘target.txt’ in source folder where your above file is stored.
Example: Delete specified files.
<!DOCTYPE
html>
<html>
<head>
<meta
http-equiv="Content-Type"
content="text/html; charset=windows-1252">
<title></title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
// "C://Users//Sachindra//Desktop//wamp.txt"
source
file
path
unlink("target.txt");
echo
'file deleted successfully';
?>
</body>
</html>
Output:
Now file successfully deleted from source folder.
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