PHP | fseek( ) Function

The fseek() function in PHP is an inbuilt function which is used to seek in an open file. It moves the file pointer from its current position to a new position, forward or backward specified by the number of bytes. The file and the offset are sent as parameters to the fseek() function and it returns 0 on success, or -1 on failure.

Syntax:

int fseek ( $file, $offset, $whence)

Parameters: The fseek() function in PHP accepts three parameters as described below.

• $file: It is a mandatory parameter which specifies the file.
• $offset: It is a mandatory parameter which specifies the new position of the pointer. It is measured in bytes from the beginning of the file.
• $whence: It is an optional parameter which can have the following possible values-
  • SEEK_SET: It sets position equal to offset.
  • SEEK_CUR: It sets position to current location plus offset.
  • SEEK_END: It sets position to EOF plus offset. To move to a position before EOF, the offset must be a negative value.

Return Value: It returns 0 on success, or -1 on failure.

Exceptions:

• Seeking past EOF(end of file) generates an error.
• If a file is open in append (a or a+) mode, then any data written to the file will always be appended, regardless of the file position, and the result of calling fseek() will be undefined.
• Not all streams support seeking. For those that do not support seeking, forward seeking from the current position is accomplished by reading and discarding data; other forms of seeking will fail.

Below programs illustrate the fseek() function in PHP:

Program 1: In the below program the file named gfg.txt contains the following content:

Geeksforgeeks is a portal for geeks!

<?php
// Opening a file
$myfile = fopen("gfg.txt", "w");

// reading first line
fgets($myfile);

// moving back to the beginning of the file
echo fseek($myfile, 0);

// closing the file
fclose($myfile);
?>

Output:

0

Program 2: In the below program the file named gfg.txt contains the following content:

Geeksforgeeks is a portal for geeks!

<?php
// Opening a file
$myfile = fopen("gfg.txt", "w");

// reading first line
fgets($myfile);

// fseek() pointing to the end of the file
fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);

// closing the file
fclose($myfile);
?>

Output:

36

Reference: http://php.net/manual/en/function.fseek.php