Writing to Files
Writing to files is as easy as reading from themif you are using PHP 5 or higher. Then, the function file_put_contents() writes data directly to a file, and this is binary-safe. After calling the function, the file is closed. The code writes data into a file. Writing Data into a File (file_put_contents.php) <?php file_put_contents('file.txt', ''> This text file contains\nsome random text. <''); echo 'File written.'; ?> However, the preceding code overwrites the existing file. If you want to append data (therefore emulating file mode a), you first have to read in the file's data. Appending Data to a File (file_append_contents.php) <?php function file_append_contents($filename, $data) { $olddata = @file_get_contents($filename); return file_put_contents($filename, ''$olddata$data''); } file_append_contents('file.txt', "\n> This text file contains\neven more random text. <"); echo 'Data appended to file'; ?>
However, this all fails when a PHP version below 5.0.0 is used because the function file_put_contents() does not exist in earlier versions. It is, however, possible to emulate the behavior of file_put_contents() for older PHP versions. This works similarly to reading from a file with fopen(), fgets(), and fclose(). For writing, just one more function is required: fwrite() writes data to a file handle. The following code implements this approach. Using function_exists(), you can check whether the function file_put_contents() already exists. If not, you can write it. Using file_put_contents() with All Relevant PHP Versions (file_put_contents_compatible.php) <?php if (!function_exists('file_put_contents')) { function file_put_contents($filename, $content) { if ($fp = @fopen($filename, 'w')) { $result = fwrite($fp, $content); fclose($fp); return $result; } else { return false; } } } file_put_contents('file.txt', "\n> This text file contains\nsome random text. <"); echo 'Data written to file.'; ?> |
