Faster?

[unidox]

I was wondering which is faster(ie. less site load time). File_get_contents or using fopen/fread. Thanks

[.josh]

well if you look at the manual for both file_get_contents and fread, they both say that file_get_contents is preferred because it gives much better performance.  But that's if you're just wanting to get all the contents of the file.  fread is more versatile.  Depends on what it is you're trying to do.

[rhodesa]

also, for larger files, I would imagine fread would save you some memory (as long as you process each chunk as it arrives and not just append it to a variable)

[.josh]

also, for larger files, I would imagine fread would save you some memory (as long as you process each chunk as it arrives and not just append it to a variable)

nope. from the manual:

Note: If you just want to get the contents of a file into a string, use file_get_contents() as it has much better performance than the code above.

("the code above" is an example of how to use fread to get the contents of a file into a string).

[rhodesa]

right...cus it just appends it to a variable...put if you process it in chunks:

 

<?php
  $handle = fopen("path/to/some/large_file.ext", "r");
  $contents = '';
  while (!feof($handle)) {
    echo fread($handle, 1024);
  }
  fclose($handle);
?>

 

in this case, you aren't eating up memory by storing the entire contents into a variable

[.josh]

well that's fine and dandy if all you're wanting to do is echo out the contents.

[unidox]

Well all I am going to read is 1 digit. A 1 or a 0.

[rhodesa]

well then use file_get_contents()

[.josh]

all you're going to do is read 1 digit? And you're concerned about performance? LoL...dude even with huge files like megabytes huge, we're talking microseconds difference in time here.. I can't even imagine how small of a difference we're talking about when reading 1 little character. 

[rhodesa]

out of curiosity, why are you reading 1 digit from the file?

[DarkWater]

Yeah, what exactly are you trying to do?

[.josh]

my first guess is a page hit counter

[rhodesa]

mine was a 'lock' of some sort...in which i was going to recommend flock

[unidox]

Well it is for a license script. It checks license.php on a remote server with a license key and server info using get, and then license.php outputs a 1 for yes, 0 for no.