Re: Opening a file to manipulate it

Hello, "Troy May" <tmay@pcsympathy.com> wrote: > Hello, > > Extreme newbie here (halfway through my first book :) ). I need to open a > file, read the whole file into a variable, manipulate it, and then echo it > to the screen. I'm doing it right from my book and it's not working. > Here's what I have now: > > <? $header = fopen("header.html","r"); > > echo $header; ?> > > It writes "Resource id #1" at the top of the page. What is that?! :) Check the manual: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.fopen.php You're echoing the result of fopen() which is an "int"--you have to make sure that you're using the function properly ;) > I have also tried using file(). That displays "Array" on the screen. What > am I doing wrong? I think it's because you're echoing the result of file() which is an array. You cannot just "echo $the_array;" Try print_r($the_array) and you'll see a different result--though I doubt it's the one you want to see :) Check the manual again: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.file.php Anyway, I think you're looking for something like this: http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.file-get-contents.php Esp. the "User Contributed Notes". HTH, - E