PHP fgets() | Get Single Line from a File

The PHP fgets() function is used when we need to read a file line by line. For example:

<?php
   $fp = fopen("fresherearth.txt", "r");
   echo fgets($fp);
   fclose($fp);
?>

The output produced by above PHP example on fgets() function, is:

The Hey,, you are seeing as the output of above example, is the text of first line of the file named fresherearth.txt. Here is the snapshot of the opened file, available in the current directory:

Note - The fopen() opens a file.

Note - The fclose() closes a file.

To get all lines, using fgets(), you need to go through the whole content of the file, using feof() function. Here is an example:

<?php
   $fp = fopen("fresherearth.txt", "r");
   if($fp)
   {
      while(!feof($fp))
      {
         $line = fgets($fp);
         echo $line;
         echo "<br>";
      }
      fclose($fp);
   }
   else
      echo "<p>Unable to open the file!</p>";
?>

Now the output should be:

Note - The feof() check whether the file pointer has been reached to the end of the file.

PHP fgets() Syntax

The syntax of fgets() function in PHP, is:

fgets(filePointer, size)

The filePointer parameter is required, whereas the size parameter is optional.

Note - The size parameter is used when we need to fetch upto particular number of bytes. For example:

<?php
   $fp = fopen("fresherearth.txt", "r");
   if($fp)
   {
      $content = fgets($fp, 3);
      echo $content;
      fclose($fp);
   }
   else
      echo "<p>Unable to open the file!</p>";
?>

The output produced by above PHP example on fgets() function with size parameter, is:

Note - The reading of file stops, when a new line occurs. Therefore, since the first line of fresherearth.txt file contains Hey,. That can be read using fgets($fp, 5). But if you increase the size, then in that case too, you will get the same output, that will be the content of the first line.

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