Wicked Cool PHP

#50: Placing a File's Contents into a Variable

Let's say that you want to put all of the content of a text file into a variable so that you can access it later. This is a good introduction to file access, because it shows all of the basic steps. Here's how you would place the contents of file.txt into the $file_data variable:

<?php

$file_data = '';

$fd = fopen('file.txt', 'r');
if (!$fd) {
    echo "Error! Couldn't open the file.";
    die;
}

while (! feof($fd)) {
    $file_data .= fgets($fd, 5000);

}

fclose($fd);

?>

The fopen() function is an essential first step in most file access. It acts as a gateway between the system and PHP. When opening a file, you specify how you want to access the file. In this case, we open it for read access. You can also open ...