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The fgetc Function

The fgetc function reads and returns one character from a file. The function takes a file pointer as a parameter, returns a string with one character or false if the end of the file has been reached.

Syntax

fgetc(resource $handle): string|false

Example

Read a file character by character and output each character:

<?php $file = fopen('test.txt', 'r'); if ($file) { while (($char = fgetc($file)) !== false) { echo $char; } fclose($file); } ?>

Example

Read only the first character from the file:

<?php $file = fopen('test.txt', 'r'); if ($file) { $char = fgetc($file); echo $char; fclose($file); } ?>

Example

Handling the case when the end of the file is reached:

<?php $file = fopen('empty.txt', 'r'); if ($file) { $res = fgetc($file); var_dump($res); fclose($file); } ?>

See Also

  • the fgets function,
    which reads a line from a file
  • the fread function,
    which reads from a file
  • the feof function,
    which checks for the end of a file
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