PHP File Handling

PHP provides various ways to manipulate files and folders on the server. In this article, we will discuss the file handling capabilities of PHP, specifically how to create, read, update, and delete files using PHP.

Creating a File

To create a file using PHP, you need to use the fopen() function. This function takes two parameters: the name of the file you want to create and the mode in which you want to open the file.

$file = fopen("test.txt", "w");

In this example, we are creating a file named "test.txt" and opening it in write mode ("w"). Once the file is open, you can write to it using the fwrite() function.

fwrite($file, "Hello World");

After writing to the file, it's important to close it using the fclose() function.

fclose($file);

Reading a File

To read the contents of a file, you need to use the file_get_contents() function. This function takes a single parameter: the name of the file you want to read.

$content = file_get_contents("test.txt");
echo $content;

This will output the contents of the file, which in this case is "Hello World".

Updating a File

To update the contents of a file, you can use the file_put_contents() function. This function takes two parameters: the name of the file you want to update and the new contents of the file.

$content = "Hello World Again";
file_put_contents("test.txt", $content);

Deleting a File

To delete a file, you can use the unlink() function. This function takes a single parameter: the name of the file you want to delete.

unlink("test.txt");

Summary

File handling is a crucial aspect of server-side programming. PHP provides various functions to make it easy to manipulate files and folders on the server. In this article, we discussed how to create, read, update, and delete files using PHP.