PHP 8.3.4 Released!

fgetc

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

fgetcGets character from file pointer

Description

fgetc(resource $stream): string|false

Gets a character from the given file pointer.

Parameters

stream

The file pointer must be valid, and must point to a file successfully opened by fopen() or fsockopen() (and not yet closed by fclose()).

Return Values

Returns a string containing a single character read from the file pointed to by stream. Returns false on EOF.

Warning

This function may return Boolean false, but may also return a non-Boolean value which evaluates to false. Please read the section on Booleans for more information. Use the === operator for testing the return value of this function.

Examples

Example #1 A fgetc() example

<?php
$fp
= fopen('somefile.txt', 'r');
if (!
$fp) {
echo
'Could not open file somefile.txt';
}
while (
false !== ($char = fgetc($fp))) {
echo
"$char\n";
}
?>

Notes

Note: This function is binary-safe.

See Also

  • fread() - Binary-safe file read
  • fopen() - Opens file or URL
  • popen() - Opens process file pointer
  • fsockopen() - Open Internet or Unix domain socket connection
  • fgets() - Gets line from file pointer

add a note

User Contributed Notes 5 notes

up
8
alex at alexdemers dot me
14 years ago
The best and simplest way to get input from a user in the CLI with only PHP is to use fgetc() function with the STDIN constant:

<?php

echo 'Are you sure you want to quit? (y/n) ';
$input = fgetc(STDIN);

if (
$input == 'y')
{
exit(
0);
}

?>
up
7
ktraas at gmail dot com (Kevin Traas)
14 years ago
I was using command-line PHP to create an interactive script and wanted the user to enter just one character of input - in response a Yes/No question. Had some trouble finding a way to do so using fgets(), fgetc(), various suggestions using readline(), popen(), etc. Came up with the following that works quite nicely:

$ans = strtolower( trim( `bash -c "read -n 1 -t 10 ANS ; echo \\\$ANS"` ) );
up
4
sfinktah at php dot spamtrak dot org
12 years ago
To read a single key-press in CLI mode, you can either use ncurses (which will probably require additional modules for PHP) or get nasty with the *nix "/bin/stty" command)

<?php
function stty($options) {
exec($cmd = "/bin/stty $options", $output, $el);
$el AND die("exec($cmd) failed");
return
implode(" ", $output);
}

function
getchar($echo = false) {
$echo = $echo ? "" : "-echo";

# Get original settings
$stty_settings = preg_replace("#.*; ?#s", "", stty("--all"));

# Set new ones
stty("cbreak $echo");

# Get characters until a PERIOD is typed,
# showing their hexidecimal ordinal values.
printf("> ");
do {
printf("%02x ", ord($c = fgetc(STDIN)));
} while (
$c != '.');

# Return settings
stty($stty_settings);
}

getchar();
?>
up
2
seraclimov at yandex dot ru
6 years ago
You can't just simple print separated characters of a text which is encoded in multibyte character set like this;
Because fgetc() will break each multibyte character on its every byte. Consider this example:

<?php
$path
= 'foo/cyrillic.txt';
$handle = fopen($path, 'rb');
while (
FALSE !== ($ch = fgetc($handle))) {
$curs = ftell($hanlde);
print
"[$curs:] $ch\n";
}
/* The result will be something like this:
<
[1]: <
[2]: h
[3]: 2
[4]: >
[5]: �
[6]: �
[7]: �
[8]: �
[9]: �
[10]: �
[11]:
[12]: �
[13]: �
[14]: �
[15]: �
[16]: �
*/
?>

I don't think this is the best, but it can be a workaround:
<?php
$path
= 'path/to/your/file.ext';

if (!
$handle = fopen($path, 'rb')) {
echo
"Can't open ($path) file';
exit;
}

$mbch = ''; // keeps the first byte of 2-byte cyrillic letters
while (FALSE !== (
$ch = fgetc($handle))) {
//check for the sign of 2-byte cyrillic letters
if (empty(
$mbch) && (FALSE !== array_search(ord($ch), Array(208,209,129)))) {
$mbch = $ch; // keep the first byte
continue;
}
$curs = ftell($handle);
print "
[$curs]: " . $mbch . $ch . PHP_EOL;
// or print "
[$curs]: $mbch$ch\n";
if (!empty(
$mbch)) $mbch = ''; // erase the byte after using
}
?>
up
0
Anonymous
6 years ago
If you call fgetc(HANDLE) multiple times you must clear buffer before, thus get all unwanted chars to the new new line character.

while (true) {

//clear buffer - read all unwanted characters
while(fgetc(STDIN) != "\n");

//get first character from STDIN
$first = fgetc(STDIN);
}
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