PHP file_exists( ) Function

The file_exists() function in PHP is an inbuilt function which is used to check whether a file or directory exists or not.

The path of the file or directory you want to check is passed as a parameter to the file_exists() function which returns True on success and False on failure.

Syntax:

file_exists($path)

Parameters:

The file_exists() function in PHP accepts only one parameter $path. It specifies the path of the file or directory you want to check.

Return Value:

It returns True on success and False on failure.

Errors And Exception:

• The file_exists() function returns False if the path specified points to non-existent files.
• For files larger than 2gb, some of the filesystem functions may give unexpected results since PHP’s integer type is signed and many platforms use 32bit integers.

Examples:

Input: echo file_exists('/user01/work/gfg.txt');
Output: 1

Input: $file_pointer = '/user01/work/gfg.txt';
        if (file_exists($file_pointer)) {
            echo "The file $file_pointer exists";
        }else {
            echo "The file $file_pointer does 
                                   not exists";
        }
Output: 1

Below programs illustrate the file_exists() function.

Example 1: Below example shows the implementation of the PHP file_exists function

<?php

// checking whether file exists or not
echo file_exists('/user01/work/gfg.txt');

?>

Output:

1

Example 2: Below example shows the implementation of the PHP file_exists function

<?php

// checking whether file exists or not
$file_pointer = '/user01/work/gfg.txt';

if (file_exists($file_pointer)) 
{
    echo "The file $file_pointer exists";
}
else 
{
    echo "The file $file_pointer does
                             not exists";
}

?>

Output:

1

PHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. You can learn PHP from the ground up by following this PHP Tutorial and PHP Examples.