{"id":80,"date":"2020-12-12T06:57:47","date_gmt":"2020-12-12T06:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kindsonthegenius.com\/php\/?p=80"},"modified":"2026-10-29T01:29:04","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T01:29:04","slug":"php-working-with-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kindsonthegenius.com\/php\/php-working-with-files\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP – Working with Files"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this tutorial, we would see how to manipulate files and directories. The following would be covered:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Opening and Closing Files<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Reading File Content<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. Writing to a File<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n

    1. Opening and Closing Files<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    You can open a file in PHP using the fopen() function. This function takes two arguments: the file path and the file mode in which it would open. There are six different file modes as specified in the table below:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    SN<\/th>\nMode & Description<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
    1<\/td>\nr\u00a0 <\/b>– Opens the file for read-only and place the file pointer at the beginning of the file.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    2<\/td>\nr+ <\/b>– Opens the file for read\/write and places the file pointer at the beginning of the file.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    3<\/td>\nw <\/b>– Opens the file for write only and places the file pointer at the beginning of the file.<\/p>\n

    the file is truncated to zero length.<\/p>\n

    If files does not exist then a new file is created.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    4<\/td>\nw+ <\/b>– Opens the file for reading and write-only and places the file pointer at the beginning of the file.<\/p>\n

    the file is truncated to zero length.<\/p>\n

    If files does not exist then a new file is created.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    5<\/td>\na\u00a0<\/b> <\/b>– Opens the file for reading and write-only and places the file pointer at the end of the file.<\/p>\n

    the file is truncated to zero length.<\/p>\n

    If files does not exist then a new file is created.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

    6<\/td>\na+<\/b><\/p>\n

    Opens the file for reading and appending only and the pointer is placed at the end of the file. The file content is preserved<\/p>\n

    the file is not truncated to zero length.<\/p>\n

    If files does not exist then a new file is created.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

    The fopen()<\/strong> function will return a file pointer for reading the file if the operation is successful. However, if the operation fails, the function returns false. After reading or writing a file, you have to close the file using the fclose()<\/strong> function. This function returns true if the close operation succeeds, otherwise it returns false. We’ll an example in the next section.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    2. Reading File Content<\/strong><\/h4>\n

    Once a file is successfully opened, the content can be read using the fread()<\/strong> function. This function take two arguments: the first argument is the pointer (returned by fopen<\/strong>) while the second argument is the length of the file in bytes.<\/p>\n

    The length of the file can be obtained using the filesize()<\/strong> function. This function takes two arguments as well: the file name and the file size in bytes.<\/p>\n

    The steps for reading a file can be summarised as follows:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • open the file using the fopen()<\/strong> funtion<\/li>\n
    • get the length of the file using the filesize()<\/strong> function<\/li>\n
    • read the content of the file using the fread()<\/strong> function<\/li>\n
    • close the file using fclose()<\/strong> function<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      Let’s take an example that reads the content of a file and displays the content to a web page<\/p>\n

      <?php<\/span> \r\n    $filePointer<\/span> =<\/span> fopen<\/span>(\"names.txt\"<\/span>, \"r+\"<\/span>);\r\n\r\n    if<\/span> ($fileSize<\/span> ==<\/span> false<\/span>){\r\n        echo<\/span> \"Could not open file\"<\/span>;\r\n        exit<\/span>();\r\n    }\r\n    \r\n    $fileSize<\/span> =<\/span> filesize<\/span>(\"names.txt\"<\/span>);\r\n    $fileContent<\/span> =<\/span> fread<\/span>($filePointer<\/span>, $fileSize<\/span>);\r\n    fclose<\/span>($filePointer<\/span>);\r\n\r\n    echo<\/span> \"File size is: <\/span>$fileSize<\/span> bytes\"<\/span>;\r\n    echo<\/span> \"<pre> <\/span>$fileContent<\/span> <\/pre>\"<\/span>;\r\n?><\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n
       <\/p>\n
      3. Writing to a File<\/strong><\/h4>\n
      As mentioned before, you can write some text into a new file or an existing file. You can do this using the fwrite()<\/strong> function. This function takes two arguments: first is the file pointer and the second is the string of data to be written. There is also a third optional argument, that is the size of data to write. If this argument is specified, then the write will stop once the given size of data is written.<\/p>\n
      The example below creates a new file and writes some text inside. You can use the function file_exists() to check if a file exists. This function takes the name of the file as an argument.<\/p>\n
      <?php<\/span> \r\n    $filename<\/span> =<\/span> \"names.txt\"<\/span>;\r\n    $filePointer<\/span> =<\/span> fopen<\/span>($filePointer<\/span>, \"w\"<\/span>);\r\n    \r\n    if<\/span>($filePointer<\/span> ==<\/span> false<\/span>){\r\n        echo<\/span> \"Could not open file\"<\/span>;\r\n        exit<\/span>();\r\n    }\r\n\r\n    $textToWrite<\/span> =<\/span> \"This is an example of writing to file\"<\/span>;\r\n\r\n    fwrite<\/span>($filePointer<\/span>, $textToWrite<\/span>);\r\n    fclose<\/span>($filePointer<\/span>);\r\n?><\/span>\r\n<\/pre>\n
       <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      In this tutorial, we would see how to manipulate files and directories. The following would be covered: Opening and Closing Files Reading File Content Writing … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-reading-and-writing-to-file"],"yoast_head":"\nPHP - Working with Files | Kindson The Genius<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"PHP - Working with Files \u2014 free PHP tutorial by Kindson Munonye with clear examples. Step-by-step for beginners. 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