Why doesn't fopen() with 'w' automatically create file?

[parksobong]

The following is my hit-counter script:
[code]
                $cnt_file = "counter.dat";

                if($fp = @fopen($cnt_file, 'r')) {
                        $count = fread($fp, filesize($cnt_file));
                        fclose($fp);
                }
                else
                        $count = 0;

                $count = $count + 1;

                $fp = fopen($cnt_file, 'w');
                fwrite($fp, $count);

                print("You are visitor number " . $count);

                fclose($fp)
[/code]

First, I didn't have a file called "counter.dat," and I assumed that this script would automatically create a "counter.dat" file if non-existent.

However, "fopen()" errors continued to appear until I manually created "counter.dat" with a value of n.

By nature, doesn't fopen($file, 'w') automatically create $file if it doesn't exist?

[ober]

try 'w+'.

[AndyB]

fopen with the w or w+ parameter [i]attempts to[/i] create the file if it doesn't exist. I doubt it would unless the folder write permissions were set correctly.