Including the content of a PHP file into another file reduces the complexity of code by reducing the code and improving its modularity by splitting the code into different files so that it is easy to understand and manage.
There are two ways to do it by using the following PHP functions.
- PHP include() Function: It will show the warning if the file does not exist and continue rendering the code
- PHP require() Function: It will show the error if the file does not exist and stop the program.
If you do not want the script to be interrupted and do not want to stop the script then use the include() otherwise use require(). These two ways of including the files into another save a lot of work and make our code more efficient to understand.
Example 1: In this, there is a file called another_file.php which is included in another file called index.php using the include keyword.
<html> <body> <h2>This is the content of index.php file.</h2>
<?php
include("another_file.php");
?>
</body> </html> |
<?php echo "<h2>This is the content of another_file.php</h2>";
echo "<h3>Hello, good to see you </h3>";
?> |
Output:
Example 2: In this, there is a file called another_file.php which is included in another file called index.php using the require keyword.
<html> <body> <h2>This is the content of index.php file.</h2>
<?php
require("another_file.php");
?>
</body> </html> |
<?php echo "<h2>This is the content of another_file.php</h2>";
echo "<h3>Hello, good to see you </h3>";
?> |
Output:
require
Example 3: In this, we use include but if it is not able to find another file to include then it gives a warning and executes after code i.e. it prints the remaining content of “index.php”.
<html> <body> <h2>This is the content of index.php file.</h2>
<?php
include("another_file.php");
?>
<h2>This is content after including another_file content</h2>
</body> </html> |
Output:
include, not able to find another file
Example 4: In this, we use require but if it is not able to find another file to include then it gives a fatal error and does not execute after code i.e. it stops the script by giving an error.
<html> <body> <h2>This is the content of index.php file.</h2>
<?php
require("another_file.php");
?>
<h2>This is content after including another_file content</h2>
</body> </html> |
Output:
require, does not able to find another file