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<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xml:id="function.file-put-contents">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>file_put_contents</refname> 
  <refpurpose>Write data to a file</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>

 <refsect1 role="description">
  &reftitle.description;
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type class="union"><type>int</type><type>false</type></type><methodname>file_put_contents</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>filename</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam><type>mixed</type><parameter>data</parameter></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type>int</type><parameter>flags</parameter><initializer>0</initializer></methodparam>
   <methodparam choice="opt"><type class="union"><type>resource</type><type>null</type></type><parameter>context</parameter><initializer>&null;</initializer></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <para> 
   This function is identical to calling <function>fopen</function>, 
   <function>fwrite</function> and <function>fclose</function> successively
   to write data to a file.
  </para>
  <para>
   If <parameter>filename</parameter> does not exist, the file is created.
   Otherwise, the existing file is overwritten, unless the 
   <constant>FILE_APPEND</constant> flag is set.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="parameters">
  &reftitle.parameters;
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>filename</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       Path to the file where to write the data.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>data</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The data to write. Can be either a <type>string</type>, an
       <type>array</type> or a <type>stream</type> resource.
      </para>
      <para>
       If <parameter>data</parameter> is a <type>stream</type> resource, the
       remaining buffer of that stream will be copied to the specified file.
       This is similar with using <function>stream_copy_to_stream</function>.
      </para>
      <para>
       You can also specify the <parameter>data</parameter> parameter as a single
       dimension array. This is equivalent to
       <literal>file_put_contents($filename, implode('', $array))</literal>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>flags</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       The value of <parameter>flags</parameter> can be any combination of 
       the following flags, joined with the binary OR (<literal>|</literal>)
       operator.
      </para>
      <para>
       <table>
        <title>Available flags</title>
        <tgroup cols="2">
         <thead>
          <row>
           <entry>Flag</entry>
           <entry>Description</entry>
          </row>
         </thead>
         <tbody>
          <row>
           <entry>
            <constant>FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH</constant>
           </entry>
           <entry>
            Search for <parameter>filename</parameter> in the include directory.
            See <link linkend="ini.include-path">include_path</link> for more
            information.
           </entry>
          </row>
          <row>
           <entry>
            <constant>FILE_APPEND</constant>
           </entry>
           <entry>
            If file <parameter>filename</parameter> already exists, append 
            the data to the file instead of overwriting it.
           </entry>
          </row>
          <row>
           <entry>
            <constant>LOCK_EX</constant>
           </entry>
           <entry>
            Acquire an exclusive lock on the file while proceeding to the 
            writing. In other words, a <function>flock</function> call happens
            between the <function>fopen</function> call and the 
            <function>fwrite</function> call. This is not identical to an 
            <function>fopen</function> call with mode "x".
           </entry>
          </row>
         </tbody>
        </tgroup>
       </table>
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>context</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       A valid context resource created with 
       <function>stream_context_create</function>.
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="returnvalues">
  &reftitle.returnvalues;
  <para>
   This function returns the number of bytes that were written to the file, or
   &false; on failure.
  </para>
  &return.falseproblem;
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="examples">
  &reftitle.examples;
  <para>
   <example>
    <title>Simple usage example</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$file = 'people.txt';
// Open the file to get existing content
$current = file_get_contents($file);
// Append a new person to the file
$current .= "John Smith\n";
// Write the contents back to the file
file_put_contents($file, $current);
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
   <example>
    <title>Using flags</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$file = 'people.txt';
// The new person to add to the file
$person = "John Smith\n";
// Write the contents to the file, 
// using the FILE_APPEND flag to append the content to the end of the file
// and the LOCK_EX flag to prevent anyone else writing to the file at the same time
file_put_contents($file, $person, FILE_APPEND | LOCK_EX);
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>
 </refsect1>
  
 <refsect1 role="notes">
  &reftitle.notes;
  &note.bin-safe;
  &tip.fopen-wrapper;
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="seealso">
  &reftitle.seealso;
  <para>
   <simplelist>
    <member><function>fopen</function></member>
    <member><function>fwrite</function></member>
    <member><function>file_get_contents</function></member>
    <member><function>stream_context_create</function></member>
   </simplelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>

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