Using PHP’s file() Function to Read Files into an Array

In PHP, the file function reads a file and returns its contents as an array, with each line as an element.

The function prototype is

array file ( string $filename [, int $flags = 0 [, resource $context ]] )

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First, create a sample file sample.txt containing:

Hello, world!
This is a sample file.
It is used for testing file functions in PHP.

Reading the file with $fileContent = file("sample.txt"); print_r($fileContent); produces an array where each line includes the newline character.

To omit newlines, use the FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES flag:

$fileContent = file("sample.txt", FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES); print_r($fileContent);

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Additional flags such as FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES can be combined (e.g., FILE_IGNORE_NEW_LINES | FILE_SKIP_EMPTY_LINES) to skip empty lines while reading.

These options allow flexible handling of file input in PHP backend development.