PHP File system ; How to create, rename , delete a file in PHP

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PHP File system: How to create, access and manipulate a file

In this tutorial, you will learn to create, read , remove files using the PHP file system function.

Open a file
In PHP, to work with a file, you need to open the file. The PHP fopen() function is used to open a file.
The Syntax
SYNTAX

fopen(filename , mode )

From the syntax above, you can see the
• filename : The file name specifies the name of the file you want to open

• mode : the mode specifies the mode the file should be open. Do you want it to open a read only file , or open a read and write file. These are the job of the mode.
Here is an example

<?php
$file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($file ,'w');
?>

Reading from file
After you have opened a file, you need to learn how to read from the file you have opened.
When reading a file ,you can decide to read a fixed number of characters from a file or read the entire file.

<?php
$file = 'file.txt';
$data =fread($file, 'r' );
?>

Writing the File
You can write a file using the PHP fwrite() function. Here is the syntax

SYNTAX

fwrite(filehandle , string)

Example

<?php
$file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen( $file, 'w');
fwrite( $file ,'w');
?>

Looking at the example above, if the file doesn't exist, PHP will create it and write the file. But PHP will erase the content before writing a new file because of the mode. We would talk about the mode as we continue.

Close file
To close a file, you use the fclose() function.

<?php
$file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($file ,'w' )
fclose($handle);
?>

Delete a file
You can delete a file using the unlink() function. Here is an example:

SYNTAX

<?php
$file = 'file.txt' ;
unlink($file);
?>

Now that we have talked about creating, opening and manipulating a file. We need to talk more about the mode.

Let's talk more about the mode. There are several modes to open a file which I would list below. They are :
• r
Opens a read only file

• r+
Opens a read and write file

• w
Opens file for writing only

• w+
Opens a file for writing and reading and clears the content of the file.

• a
Opens a file for writing only. If files does not exist, PHP will open it.

• a+
Read/ Append. Opens a file for both reading and writing.

• x
Opens a file for writing only. But if the file already exists, it returns FALSE

• x+
Opens the file for reading and writing and returns false if file already exist.

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