i'm beginner in PHP and i have some problems here. this is my coding: <? if (isset($_GET['page'])) { $page = $_GET['page']; } else { $page = 0; } if ($page == "1") { $filename = addslashes($_POST['filename']); if ($filename=="") { echo("*** No information given! ***"); } else { $data = file ( '$filename' ); echo("*** hello!! ***<br>"); echo("*** $filename ***"); } } else { ?> <p> </p> <p> </p> <center> <form name= "form1" form method="post"action="<?=$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']?>?page=1"enctype="multipart/form-data?page=1"> <p> <input type="file" name="filename"> </p> <p> </p> <p> <input name="Submit" type="submit" id="Submit" value="Grade" onkeypress="Check()"> //<input type="hidden" id="formaction" value="uploadNow"> <input name="reset" type="reset" id="reset" value="Clear"> </p> </form> </center> <? } ?> and the output is here: Warning: file($filename) [function.file]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in C:\Program Files\xampp\htdocs\grade.php on line 20 *** hello!! *** *** C:\\\\Documents and Settings\\\\user\\\\Desktop\\\\hardware.txt *** i need to open a file and the location so shown with many slashes (\\\\). why this happen and how to solve this. if u have any other coding that does solve this problem. plz let me know. and since i'm a beginner, plz give full instruction on wat to do, cause i might don't know. advance thanx for ur help.