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<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xml:id="function.file">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>file</refname>
  <refpurpose>Reads entire file into an array</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 
 <refsect1 role="description">
  &reftitle.description;
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type>array</type><methodname>file</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>filename</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type>int</type><parameter>flags</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type>resource</type><parameter>context</parameter></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <para>
   Reads an entire file into an array.
  </para>
  <note>
   <para>
    You can use <function>file_get_contents</function> to return the contents
    of a file as a string.
   </para>
  </note>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="parameters">
  &reftitle.parameters;
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>filename</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Path to the file.
      </para>
      &tip.fopen-wrapper;
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>flags</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The optional parameter <parameter>flags</parameter> can be one, or
       more, of the following constants:
       <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>
          <constant>FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH</constant>
         </term>
         <listitem>
          <simpara>
           Search for the file in the <link 
           linkend="ini.include-path">include_path</link>.
          </simpara>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>
          <constant>FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES</constant>
         </term>
         <listitem>
          <simpara>
           Do not add newline at the end of each array element
          </simpara>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>
          <constant>FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES</constant>
         </term>
         <listitem>
          <simpara>
           Skip empty lines
          </simpara>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>
          <constant>FILE_TEXT</constant>
         </term>
         <listitem>
          <simpara>
           The content is returned in UTF-8 encoding. You can specify a different
           encoding by creating a custom context. This flag cannot be used with 
           <constant>FILE_BINARY</constant>. This flag is only available since 
           PHP 6.
          </simpara>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
        <varlistentry>
         <term>
          <constant>FILE_BINARY</constant>
         </term>
         <listitem>
          <simpara>
           The content is read as binary data. This is the default setting 
           and cannot be used with <constant>FILE_TEXT</constant>. This flag is 
           only available since PHP 6.
          </simpara>
         </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
       </variablelist>
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>context</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       A context resource created with the 
       <function>stream_context_create</function> function.
      </para>
      <para>
       &note.context-support;
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="returnvalues">
  &reftitle.returnvalues;
  <para>
   Returns the file in an array. Each element of the array corresponds to a
   line in the file, with the newline still attached. Upon failure,
   <function>file</function> returns &false;.
  </para>
  <note>
   <para>
    Each line in the resulting array will include the line ending, unless
    <constant>FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES</constant> is used, so you still need to
    use <function>rtrim</function> if you do not want the line ending
    present.
   </para>
  </note>
  &note.line-endings;
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="changelog">
  &reftitle.changelog;
  <para>
   <informaltable>
    <tgroup cols="2">
     <thead>
      <row>
       <entry>&Version;</entry>
       <entry>&Description;</entry>
      </row>
     </thead>
     <tbody>
      <row>
       <entry>6.0.0</entry>
       <entry>
        Added support for the <constant>FILE_TEXT</constant> and 
        <constant>FILE_BINARY</constant> flags.
       </entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>5.0.0</entry>
       <entry>
        The <parameter>context</parameter> parameter was added
       </entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>5.0.0</entry>
       <entry>
        Prior to PHP 5.0.0 the <parameter>flags</parameter> parameter only
        covered <link linkend="ini.include-path">include_path</link> and was
        enabled with 1
       </entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>4.3.0</entry>
       <entry>
        <function>file</function> became binary safe
       </entry>
      </row>
     </tbody>
    </tgroup>
   </informaltable>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="examples">
  &reftitle.examples;
  <para>
   <example>
    <title><function>file</function> example</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
// Get a file into an array.  In this example we'll go through HTTP to get
// the HTML source of a URL.
$lines = file('http://www.example.com/');

// Loop through our array, show HTML source as HTML source; and line numbers too.
foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) {
    echo "Line #<b>{$line_num}</b> : " . htmlspecialchars($line) . "<br />\n";
}

// Another example, let's get a web page into a string.  See also file_get_contents().
$html = implode('', file('http://www.example.com/'));

// Using the optional flags parameter since PHP 5
$trimmed = file('somefile.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES | FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES);
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="notes">
  &reftitle.notes;
  &warn.ssl-non-standard;
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="seealso">
  &reftitle.seealso;
  <para>
   <simplelist>
    <member><function>readfile</function></member>
    <member><function>fopen</function></member>
    <member><function>fsockopen</function></member>
    <member><function>popen</function></member>
    <member><function>file_get_contents</function></member>
    <member><function>include</function></member>
    <member><function>stream_context_create</function></member>
   </simplelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>

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