(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5)
file_get_contents — Reads entire file into a string
This function is similar to file(), except that file_get_contents() returns the file in a string , starting at the specified offset up to maxlen bytes. On failure, file_get_contents() will return FALSE.
file_get_contents() is the preferred way to read the contents of a file into a string. It will use memory mapping techniques if supported by your OS to enhance performance.
Note: If you're opening a URI with special characters, such as spaces, you need to encode the URI with urlencode().
Note: The default value of maxlen is not actually -1; rather, it is an internal PHP value which means to copy the entire stream until end-of-file is reached. The only way to specify this default value is to leave it out of the parameter list.
Name of the file to read.
Note: As of PHP 5 the FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH can be used to trigger include path search.
A valid context resource created with stream_context_create(). If you don't need to use a custom context, you can skip this parameter by NULL.
The offset where the reading starts on the original stream.
Maximum length of data read. The default is to read until end of file is reached. Note that this parameter is applied to the stream processed by the filters.
The function returns the read data or FALSE on failure.
Example #1 Get and output the source of the homepage of a website
<?php
$homepage = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/');
echo $homepage;
?>
Example #2 Searching within the include_path
<?php
// <= PHP 5
$file = file_get_contents('./people.txt', true);
// > PHP 5
$file = file_get_contents('./people.txt', FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH);
?>
Example #3 Reading a section of a file
<?php
// Read 14 characters starting from the 21st character
$section = file_get_contents('./people.txt', NULL, NULL, 20, 14);
var_dump($section);
?>
The above example will output something similar to:
string(14) "lle Bjori Ro"
Example #4 Using stream contexts
<?php
// Create a stream
$opts = array(
'http'=>array(
'method'=>"GET",
'header'=>"Accept-language: en\r\n" .
"Cookie: foo=bar\r\n"
)
);
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
// Open the file using the HTTP headers set above
$file = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/', false, $context);
?>
| Version | Description |
|---|---|
| 5.1.0 | Added the offset and maxlen parameters. |
| 5.0.0 | Added context support. |
Note: This function is binary-safe.
A URL can be used as a filename with this function if the fopen wrappers have been enabled. See fopen() for more details on how to specify the filename. See the List of Supported Protocols/Wrappers for links to information about what abilities the various wrappers have, notes on their usage, and information on any predefined variables they may provide.
When using SSL, Microsoft IIS will violate the protocol by closing the connection without sending a close_notify 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 error_reporting 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 https:// wrapper and will suppress the warning. When using fsockopen() to create an ssl:// socket, the developer is responsible for detecting and suppressing this warning.