PHP file_exists function

file_exists

(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

file_exists -- Checks whether a file or directory existsDescriptionbool file_exists ( string filename )

Returns TRUE if the file or directory specified by
filename exists; FALSE otherwise.

On windows, use //computername/share/filename or
\\computername\share\filename to check files on
network shares.

Example 1. Testing whether a file exists

PLAIN TEXT

PHP:

$filename = '/path/to/foo.txt';
if (file_exists($filename)) {
echo "The file $filename exists";
} else {
echo "The file $filename does not exist";
}

Note: The results of this
function are cached. See clearstatcache() for
more details.

Tip: As of PHP 5.0.0 this function
can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to
Appendix N for a listing of which wrappers support
stat() family of functionality.

Warning

This function returns FALSE for files inaccessible due to safe mode restrictions. However these
files still can be included if
they are located in safe_mode_include_dir.

See also is_readable(), is_writable(),
is_file() and file().