PHP file() Function: Reading Files into an Array

The PHP file() function reads an entire file into an array, where each line becomes an element; optional flags control behavior such as including the path, ignoring new lines, or skipping empty lines, and a context resource can be provided.

Parameters: $filename (string path or URL), optional $flags (bitmask of FILE_USE_INCLUDE_PATH, FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES, FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES), and optional $context (resource for stream context).

Return value: an array of lines from the file, or false on failure.

Example usage:

<?php
// Read a file into an array via HTTP
$lines = file('http://www.example.com/');
foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) {
    echo "Line #<b>{$line_num}</b> : " . htmlspecialchars($line) . "<br />
";
}

// Read a web page into a string
$html = implode('', file('http://www.example.com/'));

// Read a file while ignoring new lines and skipping empty lines
$trimmed = file('somefile.txt', FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES | FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES);
?>

Alternatively, file_get_contents() can retrieve the file content as a single string.