PHP File Handling

PHP File System allows us to create file, read file line by line, read file character by character, write file, append file, delete file and close file.

PHP Open File - fopen()

The PHP fopen() function is used to open a file.

Syntax

resource fopen ( string $filename , string $mode [, bool $use_include_path = false [, resource $context ]] )  

Example

<?php  
$handle = fopen("c:\\folder\\file.txt", "r");  
?>  

PHP Close File - fclose()

The PHP fclose() function is used to close an open file pointer.

Syntax

ool fclose ( resource $handle )  

Example

<?php  
fclose($handle);  
?>  

PHP Read File - fread()

The PHP fread() function is used to read the content of the file. It accepts two arguments: resource and file size.

Syntax

string fread ( resource $handle , int $length )  

Example

<?php    
$filename = "c:\\myfile.txt";    
$handle = fopen($filename, "r");//open file in read mode    
  
$contents = fread($handle, filesize($filename));//read file    
  
echo $contents;//printing data of file  
fclose($handle);//close file    
?>    

Output

hello php file

PHP Write File - fwrite()

The PHP fwrite() function is used to write content of the string into file.

Syntax

int fwrite ( resource $handle , string $string [, int $length ] )  

Example

<?php  
$fp = fopen('data.txt', 'w');//open file in write mode  
fwrite($fp, 'hello ');  
fwrite($fp, 'php file');  
fclose($fp);  
  
echo "File written successfully";  
?>  

Output

File written successfully

PHP Delete File - unlink()

The PHP unlink() function is used to delete file.

Syntax

bool unlink ( string $filename [, resource $context ] )  

Example

<?php    
unlink('data.txt');  
   
echo "File deleted successfully";  
?>