file_get_contents

Description

This function is similar to file(), except that file_get_contents() returns the file in a string, starting at the specified offset up to length 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.

Parameters

filename

Name of the file to read.

use_include_path

Note

The FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH constant can be used to trigger include path search. This is not possible if strict typing is enabled, since FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH is an int. Use true instead.

context

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.

offset

The offset where the reading starts on the original stream. Negative offsets count from the end of the stream.

Seeking (offset) is not supported with remote files. Attempting to seek on non-local files may work with small offsets, but this is unpredictable because it works on the buffered stream.

length

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.

Return Values

The function returns the read data Falseforfailure.

Falseproblem

Errors/Exceptions

An E_WARNING level error is generated if filename cannot be found, length is less than zero, or if seeking to the specified offset in the stream fails.

When file_get_contents() is called on a directory, an E_WARNING level error is generated on Windows, and as of PHP 7.4 on other operating systems as well.

Changelog

Examples

Get and output the source of the homepage of a website

<?php
$homepage = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/');
echo $homepage;
?>

Searching within the include_path

<?php
// If strict types are enabled i.e. declare(strict_types=1);
$file = file_get_contents('./people.txt', true);
// Otherwise
$file = file_get_contents('./people.txt', FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH);
?>

Reading a section of a file

<?php
// Read 14 characters starting from the 21st character
$section = file_get_contents('./people.txt', FALSE, NULL, 20, 14);
var_dump($section);
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

string(14) "lle Bjori Ro" 

Using stream contexts

<?php
// Create a stream
$opts = [
  'http' => [
    'method' => "GET",
    'header' => "Accept-language: en\r\n" .
                "Cookie: foo=bar",
  ]
];

$context = stream_context_create($opts);

// Open the file using the HTTP headers set above
$file = file_get_contents('http://www.example.com/', false, $context);
?>

Notes Bin-safe Fopen-wrapper Ssl-non-standard

See Also

• file()
• fgets()
• fread()
• readfile()
• file_put_contents()
• stream_get_contents()
• stream_context_create()
• $http_response_header