The fgets() function in PHP is an inbuilt function which is used to return a line from an open file.
- It is used to return a line from a file pointer and it stops returning at a specified length, on end of file(EOF) or on a new line, whichever comes first.
- The file to be read and the number of bytes to be read are sent as parameters to the fgets() function and it returns a string of length -1 bytes from the file pointed by the user.
- It returns False on failure.
Syntax:
fgets(file, length) Parameters Used: The fgets() function in PHP accepts two parameters. file : It specifies the file from which characters have to be extracted. length : It specifies the number of bytes to be read by the fgets() function. The default value is 1024 bytes.
Return Value : It returns a string of length -1 bytes from the file pointed by the user or False on failure.
Errors And Exceptions
- The function is not optimised for large files since it reads a single line at a time and it may take a lot of time to completely read a long file.
- The buffer must be cleared if the fgets() function is used multiple times.
- The fgets() function returns Boolean False but many times it happens that it returns a non-Boolean value which evaluates to False.
Suppose there is a file named “gfg.txt” which consists of :
This is the first line.
This is the second line.
This is the third line.
Program 1
<?php // file is opened using fopen() function $my_file = fopen("gfg.txt", "rw"); // Prints a single line from the opened file pointer echo fgets($my_file); // file is closed using fclose() function fclose($my_file); ?> |
Output:
This is the first line.
Program 2
<?php //file is opened using fopen() function $my_file = fopen("gfg.txt", "rw"); // prints a single line at a time until end of file is reached while (! feof ($my_file)) { echo fgets($my_file); } // file is closed using fclose() function fclose($my_file); ?> |
Output:
This is the first line. This is the second line. This is the third line.
Reference:
http://php.net/manual/en/function.fgets.php
