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<title>Reads entire file into an array</title>
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</div><hr /><div id="function.file" class="refentry">
<div class="refnamediv">
<h1 class="refname">file</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">file</span> — <span class="dc-title">Reads entire file into an array</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.file-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">array</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>file</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$filename</code></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">int</span> <code class="parameter">$flags</code><span class="initializer"> = 0</span></span>
[, <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">resource</span> <code class="parameter">$context</code></span>
]] )</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Reads an entire file into an array.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
You can use <span class="function"><a href="function.file-get-contents.html" class="function">file_get_contents()</a></span> to return the contents
of a file as a string.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.file-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">filename</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
Path to the file.
</p>
<div class="tip"><strong class="tip">Tip</strong><p class="simpara">A URL can be used as a
filename with this function if the <a href="filesystem.configuration.html#ini.allow-url-fopen" class="link">fopen wrappers</a> have been enabled.
See <span class="function"><a href="function.fopen.html" class="function">fopen()</a></span> for more details on how to specify the
filename. See the <a href="wrappers.html" class="xref">Supported Protocols and Wrappers</a> for links to information
about what abilities the various wrappers have, notes on their usage,
and information on any predefined variables they may
provide.</p></div>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
The optional parameter <em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em> can be one, or
more, of the following constants:
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term">
<strong><code>FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH</code></strong>
</span>
<dd>
<span class="simpara">
Search for the file in the <a href="ini.core.html#ini.include-path" class="link">include_path</a>.
</span>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term">
<strong><code>FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES</code></strong>
</span>
<dd>
<span class="simpara">
Do not add newline at the end of each array element
</span>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term">
<strong><code>FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES</code></strong>
</span>
<dd>
<span class="simpara">
Skip empty lines
</span>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">context</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
A context resource created with the
<span class="function"><a href="function.stream-context-create.html" class="function">stream_context_create()</a></span> function.
</p>
<p class="para">
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <span class="simpara">Context support was added
with PHP 5.0.0. For a description of <em>contexts</em>, refer to
<a href="book.stream.html" class="xref">Streams</a>.</span></p></blockquote>
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.file-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns the file in an array. Each element of the array corresponds to a
line in the file, with the newline still attached. Upon failure,
<span class="function"><strong>file()</strong></span> returns <strong><code>FALSE</code></strong>.
</p>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Each line in the resulting array will include the line ending, unless
<strong><code>FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES</code></strong> is used, so you still need to
use <span class="function"><a href="function.rtrim.html" class="function">rtrim()</a></span> if you do not want the line ending
present.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>: <span class="simpara">If PHP is not properly recognizing
the line endings when reading files either on or created by a Macintosh
computer, enabling the
<a href="filesystem.configuration.html#ini.auto-detect-line-endings" class="link">auto_detect_line_endings</a>
run-time configuration option may help resolve the problem.</span></p></blockquote>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.file-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>5.0.0</td>
<td>
The <em><code class="parameter">context</code></em> parameter was added
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>5.0.0</td>
<td>
Prior to PHP 5.0.0 the <em><code class="parameter">flags</code></em> parameter only
covered <a href="ini.core.html#ini.include-path" class="link">include_path</a> and was
enabled with 1
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.3.0</td>
<td>
<span class="function"><strong>file()</strong></span> became binary safe
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.file-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-2371">
<p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>file()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Get a file into an array. In this example we'll go through HTTP to get<br />// the HTML source of a URL.<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$lines </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">file</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'http://www.example.com/'</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Loop through our array, show HTML source as HTML source; and line numbers too.<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">foreach (</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$lines </span><span style="color: #007700">as </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$line_num </span><span style="color: #007700">=> </span><span style="color: #0000BB">$line</span><span style="color: #007700">) {<br /> echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"Line #<b></span><span style="color: #007700">{</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$line_num</span><span style="color: #007700">}</span><span style="color: #DD0000"></b> : " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">htmlspecialchars</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #0000BB">$line</span><span style="color: #007700">) . </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"<br />\n"</span><span style="color: #007700">;<br />}<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Another example, let's get a web page into a string. See also file_get_contents().<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$html </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">implode</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">''</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">file</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'http://www.example.com/'</span><span style="color: #007700">));<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">// Using the optional flags parameter since PHP 5<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">$trimmed </span><span style="color: #007700">= </span><span style="color: #0000BB">file</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'somefile.txt'</span><span style="color: #007700">, </span><span style="color: #0000BB">FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES </span><span style="color: #007700">| </span><span style="color: #0000BB">FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES</span><span style="color: #007700">);<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.file-notes">
<h3 class="title">Notes</h3>
<div class="warning"><strong class="warning">Warning</strong><p class="para">When using SSL, Microsoft IIS
will violate the protocol by closing the connection without sending a
<em>close_notify</em> indicator. PHP will report this as "SSL: Fatal
Protocol Error" when you reach the end of the data. To work around this, the
value of <a href="errorfunc.configuration.html#ini.error-reporting" class="link">error_reporting</a> should be
lowered to a level that does not include warnings.
PHP 4.3.7 and higher can detect buggy IIS server software when you open
the stream using the <em>https://</em> wrapper and will suppress the
warning. When using <span class="function"><a href="function.fsockopen.html" class="function">fsockopen()</a></span> to create an
<em>ssl://</em> socket, the developer is responsible for detecting
and suppressing this warning.</p></div>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.file-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.readfile.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">readfile()</a> - Outputs a file</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.fopen.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">fopen()</a> - Opens file or URL</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.fsockopen.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">fsockopen()</a> - Open Internet or Unix domain socket connection</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.popen.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">popen()</a> - Opens process file pointer</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.file-get-contents.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">file_get_contents()</a> - Reads entire file into a string</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.include.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">include</a> - include</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.stream-context-create.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">stream_context_create()</a> - Creates a stream context</span></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
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