PHP File Handling
Dr. Jenila Livingston L.M.
VIT Chennai
File Handling
• This involves 4 tasks
1. Opening a file
2. Reading data from a file
• Displaying the read data
3. Writing contents to another file
4. Closing a file
5. File Uploading
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1. Opening a file
• $fp = fopen(‘filename’,’mode’);
• Eg $fp = fopen(‘c:\abc.txt’,’r’);
– This opens a file abc.txt in read only mode
• Available modes:
– r – read only
– w – write only
– r+ / w+ - read write
– a – append – adding to the end
– x- write by creating new file
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File modes and description
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File modes and description
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File modes and description
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fopen
• <?php
• $myfile = fopen("abbr.txt", "r") or die("Unable
to open file!");
• echo '<b>'.
fread($myfile,filesize("abbr.txt")).'</b>';
• fclose($myfile);
• ?>
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2. Reading a file
• Several methods are available
– fread(filepointer,no of bytes to read)
– fgetc(filepointer) – Reads character by character
– fgets(filepointer) – Reads line by line
• The read content can be stored in a variable
• $data = fread($fp,10) – this reads 10 characters from
file pointed by file pointer $fp and stores in $data
• If we want to read characters till end, we need to use
a loop with condition checking for End of File
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Reading a File – fgets()
• The fgets() function is used to read a single
line from a file.
<?php
$myfile = fopen("abbr.txt", "r") or die("Unable to
open file!");
echo fgets($myfile);
fclose($myfile);
?>
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feof()
<?php
$myfile = fopen("abbr.txt", "r") or die("Unable to
open file!");
while(!feof($myfile)) {
echo fgets($myfile) . "<br>";
}
fclose($myfile);
?>
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3. Writing to file
• We can use echo $data, to print the contents read
from the file to browser
• Or we can open another file in write mode and put
the contents to that file using either of these
methods
– fwrite(filepoiner,data);
– fputc(filepointer,char); - writes character by character
– fputs(filepointer,line); - writes line by line
• Eg - fwrite($fpw,$data);
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Writing a file – fwrite()
• The fwrite(filename, text to be written)
function is used to write to a file.
$myfile = fopen("newfile.txt", "w") or
die("Unable to open file!");
$txt = "File Concepts\n";
fwrite($myfile, $txt);
fclose($myfile);
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4. Closing a file
• feof(fp) – Checks for end of file.
• Returns –1 if EOF is reached. Otherwise
returns 0
• To close a file use fclose(filepointer) method
• Eg. fclose($fp);
– This closes the file pointed by $fp.
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file_exists and filesize()
<?php
if (file_exists("abbr.txt"))
echo 'file exists';
else
echo 'filedoes not exist';
echo filesize("abbr.txt");
?>
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<?php Delete a file
if (file_exists("abbr.txt"))
echo 'file exists';
else
echo 'filedoes not exist';
echo filesize("abbr.txt");
unlink("abbr.txt");
if (file_exists("abbr.txt"))
echo 'not deleted';
else
echo 'got deleted';
?> Dr.L.M. Jenila Livingston 15
File Uploading
In your "php.ini" file, search for the file_uploads
directive, and set it to On:
file_uploads = On
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Five Variables
1. $_FILES['file']['name'] − the actual name of the
uploaded file.
2. $_FILES['file']['tmp_name'] − the uploaded file
in the temporary directory on the web server.
3. $_FILES['file']['size'] − the size in bytes of the
uploaded file.
4. $_FILES['file']['type'] − the MIME type of the
uploaded file.
5. $_FILES['file']['error'] − the error code associated
with this file upload.
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File Uploading - Steps
Step 1: Create The HTML Form
Some rules to follow for the HTML form :
• Make sure that the form uses method="post"
• The form also needs the following attribute: enctype="multipart/form-data".
It specifies which content-type to use when submitting the form
Step 2: Create The Upload File PHP Script
• $target_dir = "uploads/" - specifies the directory where the file is going to be
placed
• $target_file specifies the path of the file to be uploaded
• $imageFileType holds the file extension of the file
Step 3: Upload the file
move_uploaded_file – upload file
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Create HTML form (fileup.php)
<html><body>
<form action="fileup1.php" method="post"
enctype="multipart/form-data">
Select File to Upload:
<BR><input type="file" name="fileToUpload"
id="fileToUpload">
<BR><input type="submit" value="Upload
Image" name="submit">
</form> Dr.L.M. Jenila Livingston 19
File upload (fileup1.php)
<?php
$target_dir = "e:/uploads/";
$target_file = $target_dir . basename($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"]);
move_uploaded_file($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["tmp_name"], $target_file);
echo "The file". basename( $_FILES["fileToUpload"]["name"]). " has been
uploaded successfully";?>
?>
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Check if file already exists
• if (file_exists($target_file)) {
• echo "Sorry, file already exists.";}
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Limit File Size
• // Check file size
if ($_FILES["fileToUpload"]["size"] > 500000) {
echo "Sorry, your file is too large.";
}
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Limit File Type
• // Allow certain file formats
$imageFileType =
pathinfo($target_file,PATHINFO_EXTENSION);
• if($imageFileType != "jpg" && $imageFileType
!= "png" && $imageFileType != "jpeg"
&& $imageFileType != "gif" ) {
echo "Sorry, only JPG, JPEG, PNG & GIF files
are allowed.";
}
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Reference
• https://www.w3schools.com/php/php_file_up
load.asp
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