[SOLVED] $var = file('http... gives parse error

[johnnyboy]

hello I get a parse error when I assign an external file to a variable.

 

I deleted the entire file except

<?php

$lines = file('http://www.example.com/myfile.txt');

?>

 

I get

Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_VARIABLE in /home/restofpath/file.php on line 3

 

what gives, this example i took directly from the php manual

any help appreciated

 

johnny

 

 

[johnnyboy]

by the way i am on php version 4.4.4

the server api is cgi

 

if you need any other info let me know.

 

[holladb]

what are you trying to do? grab the data?? can't really tell from the code

[johnnyboy]

yes it is supposed to load the file into the variable

 

the example can be found here http://uk3.php.net/file

[pkSML]

PHP Manual: "You can use a URL as a filename with this function if the fopen wrappers have been enabled."

Possibly you can't open a remote location. Try file_get_contents for the URL.

 

Maybe the problem is related to the fact that 'http://www.example.com/myfile.txt' is a non-existent URL. Try a real URL.

[johnnyboy]

pksml , thanks for the tips.

 

I changed the url because i did not want to post it here, but the one I use is a real url.

 

fopen works on my server, but I wanted to use file()

 

ok, I apologize for this post because I fear that I have just been an idiot.

 

there was a period in one of the blank lines that was causing the error

it now works fine.

 

thanks pksml

 

[pkSML]

No problem. I didn't think PHP 4 was that much different from PHP 5!