PHP Basics – Read, Write, Rename, and Move Files in PHP

In this article, you will learn how to read and write a file. You will also learn how to rename a file and how to check whether a file exists. You will also learn how to optionally move a file to another directory. These are only a few of the basic PHP operations that you will need to know to write simple PHP programs.

Learn to read a file

In PHP, you can read a file using one of several functions. You can use these functions to read a single character or a full file. When you use the read() function to read a file, you can also specify the number of characters to read. If you don’t specify a number, PHP will automatically close all open files when your script finishes running.

The fread() function can be used in conjunction with filesize() to read a file. Filesize() returns the size of the file in bytes. You can also use PHP’s file() function to read the entire file content. This function returns a list of lines corresponding to each line of data in the file.

Rename a file

To rename a file in PHP, you need to know how to use the rename() function. This function takes two parameters, the old name, and the new name, and returns a value of true or false if the file was successfully renamed. The result is stored in a variable called $status. You can then use the exit() function to exit the PHP script, or you can use an echo statement to display a success or error message.

Using the mv command is another way to rename a file in PHP. This command checks to see if a file exists in a directory then opens that directory and renames the file. Similarly, you can use the for loop to rename many files at once.

Check if a file exists

In PHP, the file_exists() function checks if a file exists in a specific location. It returns true if the file or folder exists, and false otherwise. To check a file, you need to know the file’s location and then pass it as a parameter to the file_exists() function.

File_exists() returns true if the file exists in the path specified. This function is most useful when a file needs to be checked for a specific file type, but is not limited to this. It can also check whether a directory is present. The is_file() function is another option. It returns true if the file exists, while is_dir() returns false if it does not exist.

The file_exists() function is a built-in PHP function. To check if a file exists, you must pass the path of the file or directory as the parameter. If it returns True, it means that the file exists on the server, otherwise it does not.

Optionally move it to another directory

To move a file from one directory to another, you need to have PHP installed. Then, you can use the rename() and move_uploaded_file() functions to move your files. You can also use the glob() function to extract files with a certain extension. You must call the rename and move_uploaded_file functions three times to execute them.

Read a file into an array

PHP allows you to read/write files with the appropriate permissions. You can also use var_export to create a file that contains an array of data. The first step is to define a class for the object that you wish to read. For example, the class of the file that you want to read is an array.

To read a file, you can use the file() function. It reads the file’s contents into an array and returns the contents as an array of lines. The file() function also supports memory mapping, which can greatly improve performance.