PHP reference

fgets

Reads one line from an open file.

Syntax

fgets(resource $stream, ?int $length = null): string|false

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
$stream	resource	A file opened with `fopen()`.
$length	?int	Optional. The maximum number of bytes.

Return value

string|falseThe line including the line break, or `false` at the end of the file.

Examples

Reading line by line:

<?php
 
$file = sys_get_temp_dir() . '/ref-fgets.txt';
file_put_contents($file, "first\nsecond\nthird\n");
 
$handle = fopen($file, 'r');
 
while (($line = fgets($handle)) !== false) {
    echo strlen(rtrim($line)), ' ', rtrim($line), "\n";
}
 
fclose($handle);

Output:

5 first
6 second
5 third

Notes

This is how large files are read: only one line is in memory at a time. Remove the trailing line break with rtrim().

Related recipes

How to read a file line by line

In the tutorial

Reading and writing files — Working with files in PHP — writing, reading, appending, reading line by line, checking existence and deleting.

Thanks for reading!