What is the difference between fopen() and fclose() functions in PHP ?

In this article, we are going to discuss the differences between fopen() and fclose() functions.

fopen() function: This function helps users to open a file or a web URL. It mainly accepts two parameters – One is $file that specifies the file or an URL to be opened and the other is $mode that specifies in which mode the file needs to be opened. Let’s look into the syntax of fopen() function and sample program that uses fopen() function.

Syntax:

fopen( $file, $mode );

Parameters:

• $file specifies which file/URL to be open.
• $mode indicates in which mode the specified $file needs to open like read, write modes.

It returns a file pointer on success or a Boolean value FALSE on failure.

PHP

<?php

// Opening a file in read mode
$myFile = fopen("Geeks_for_Geeks.txt", "r")
      or die("No such file/directory is present");

?>

Output:

No such file/directory is present

fclose() function: The fclose() function helps to close the opened files. The fclose() function accepts only one parameter $file and closes the file which is pointed by the $file. Let’s look into the syntax and sample program of fclose() function.

Syntax:

fclose($file)

Parameters:

• $file is a pointer that points to the opened file.

It returns TRUE on success or FALSE on error.

PHP

<?php

// Opening a file in read mode
$myFile = fopen("Geeks_for_Geeks.txt", "r");

// Close the file using fclose()
fclose($myFile);

?>

Output:

True

Differences between fopen() and fclose() functions:

	fopen()	fclose()
1	The fopen() function is used to open the file or an URL.	The fclose() function closes the opened file.
2	It accepts four parameters. ($file, $mode, $include_path, $context)	It accepts only 1 parameter. ($file)
3	$file, $mode are mandatory parameters among four.	$file is the mandatory parameter.
4	It returns a file pointer on success or a Boolean value FALSE on failure.	It returns Boolean values only i.e. either TRUE or FALSE.
5	Syntax of fopen() function is- fopen($file, $mode);	Syntax of fclose() function is- fclose($file);