PHP Manual
Prev |  | Next

# file_get_contents

(PHP 4 >= 4.3.0, PHP 5)

file_get_contents -- Reads entire file into a string

## Description

string file_get_contents ( string filename [, bool use_include_path [, resource context]])

Identical to file(), except that file_get_contents() returns the file in a string. 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.

Example 1. Using file_get_contents() with a URI

If you're opening a URI with special characters, such as spaces, you need to encode the URI with urlencode().

`<?php $url = 'http://example.com/with funny chars'; list($protocol, $uri) = split('//', $url); $html = file_get_contents($protocol . '//' . urlencode($uri)); ?>`

> Note: This function is binary-safe.

> Tip: You can use a URL as a filename with this function if the fopen wrappers have been enabled. See fopen() for more details on how to specify the filename and Appendix L for a list of supported URL protocols.

> Note: Context support was added with PHP 5.0.0.

Warning

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 workaround this, you should lower your error_reporting level not to 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 for you. If you are using fsockopen() to create an ssl:// socket, you are responsible for detecting and suppressing the warning yourself.

See also fgets(), file(), fread(), include(), and readfile().

Prev | Home | Next
file_exists | Up | file_put_contents