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Basic PHP File Handling — Create, Open, Read, Write, Append, Close, and Delete

By David Walsh on December 20, 2007

I don't do a great deal of file handling in my PHP code -- most of my customers don't have a need for it or there's no room for file creation in the already tight budget. On the rare occasion that I do need to manipulate files, I keep the following tip sheet.

Create a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file); //implicitly creates file

Open a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file); //open file for writing ('w','r','a')...

Read a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'r');
$data = fread($handle,filesize($my_file));

Write to a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file);
$data = 'This is the data';
fwrite($handle, $data);

Append to a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'a') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file);
$data = 'New data line 1';
fwrite($handle, $data);
$new_data = "\n".'New data line 2';
fwrite($handle, $new_data);

Close a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file);
//write some data here
fclose($handle);

Delete a File

$my_file = 'file.txt';
unlink($my_file);

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Discussion

tahir latif
your work is very good,but need your in creating my website about cricket
sebouneeeet
To avoid warnings, not forget if(!file_exists(‘myfile.txt’)) ;)
prasd
To avoid warnings, not forget if(!file_exists(‘myfile.txt’)) ;)
your work is very good,but need your in creating my website about cricket
Max
Simple, but usefull!
TitoChhabra
Hello Everyone,
File handling functions in PHP are extremely useful and userfriendly.PHP includes a lot of built-in functions for handling files and directories. You can read, write, delete, and get lots of information on files through the use of these functions…………… for more details please check out the following link….

http://mindstick.com/Articles/07d7e4cf-b11c-49ea-8f4f-27c2e7f67c09/?File%20Handling%20in%20PHP

Thanks !!!!
choudhary
Quite useful! Better to add the modes of the files. So that a person can understand more about php file handling… Thanks
Bobo
This is basic stuff. How about a script for updating a record in an ASCII flat file?
jeet
so useful for freshers in php
Gary Paul
Once again, I need a question answered and I find my way to David’s site. Thanks for all your help.

Gary
Some Guy
Nice and concise! Definitely bookmarking. +1
Some Guy
Just found something out thought I’d post here for everyone else,
To read a file line by line use fgets($file_handle)

$file_handle = fopen(“myfile”, “r”);
while (!feof($file_handle)) {
$line = fgets($file_handle);
echo $line;
}
fclose($file_handle);
Saleem
so useful for freshers in php
Raja
Nice tutorial an am preparing this and i have an Interview next week :-)
Dreamstopixels
Thanks for making this nice tutorial and i am learning this. I only know to handle file via Control Panel i will learn it and try all those in a local server first
Mark - RDA Digital
Short and to the point, thanks, exactly what I was looking for. Much easier to delete a file than I thought, but what are your thoughts on security? Does this have any gaping security holes?

Braydon

Ok I have the code

$my_file = 'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file);
$data = 'This is the data';
fwrite($handle, $data);

And When I See if it works I geta

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected '$my_file' (T_VARIABLE)

Anup Tiwari
You’re missing a semicolon at the end.

Bolivia Diablo
Braydon, you’re probably missing a semi-colon in the line that comes before the code shown in your comment.
Adam
how come my output file has bo breaks? it is writing everything as a single line.
Adam
how come my output file has no breaks? it is writing everything as a single line. I want output like this:

Line1

Line2:

Line3

……..

Bhuwan Sehgal
You Have to use This don’t use \n

$data = ‘This
is
the
data’;
Fede
Actually, using \n does work but you need to use “\n”, not ‘\n’.

raja rajan
hmm.make it simple

james

your code doesn’t work am getting this error

SQLSTATE[HY000] [2002] No such file or directory
Warning: fopen(user_images/536974.txt): failed to open stream: Permission denied in /opt/lampp/htdocs/story_yako/addnew.php on line 31
Cannot open file: user_images/536974.txt

james

$upload_dir = 'user_images/'; // upload directory
$random_name= rand(1000,1000000)."."."txt";
$my_file = $upload_dir.$random_name;
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file);
$data = $userjob;
fwrite($handle, $data);
fclose($handle)

This is my code

Daisy Rowley

Chin-Chin everybody )
Tell me please how to change directory for my file at this code :

'file.txt';
$handle = fopen($my_file, 'w') or die('Cannot open file:  '.$my_file); //open file for writing ('w','r','a')...

Thank you very much!