File Handling in PHP

We can create a file using the funtion "touch()". The touch() funtion when called first searches whether the specified file exists or not if the file doesnot exists it creates one with the specfied file name. To delete a file we use the function called "unlink()". This funtion removes the file that has been sent as an argument.

When a file got created, How to access it?
We can access an existing file using the funtion called "fopen()". This funtion takes two arguments, The first argument specifies the name of the file that has to be opened, and the second argument specifies in which mode the file has to be opened.i'e in "read-r", "write-w" or both "read-write" mode.

If the function fopen() executes successfully then it returns an integer value known as a file pointer. This value should be stored in a variable. This variable is used to work on with the opened file. If the funtion fopen() fails executing for any reason, It just returns FALSE. Once the file is used we should close it using the "fclose()" function. This function takes only the file name as the argument.

To read from the file we use the funtion called "fgets()". When this funtion is called, it reads out all the characters until a newline(\n), or End Of File(EOF), or till a specified length is reached.

The function "fgets()" is similar to "fgets()", Unlike fgets() it returns a single character from a file. there is no need to specify any length as a argument, since a character is always 1 byte.

There are a lot of other functions that you can use with files like: testing functions � �file_exists()�, �is_file()�, �is_dir()�, �is_readable()�, �is_writeable()�, �is_executable()�; functions that return information on files: �filesize()�, �fileatime()�, �filemtime()�, �filectime()�. You can figure out what the function does by just reading its name.

Following table contains few File Handling functions and their description