How to Append Data to a File in PHP?

Appending data to a file is a common operation in PHP when you want to add new information without overwriting the existing content. This can be particularly useful for logging, saving user activity, or adding records incrementally. We will explore different approaches to appending data to a file in PHP.

There are two main approaches to appending data to a file in PHP:

Using the fopen() and fwrite() functions

In this approach, we will open a file using fopen() in append mode ('a'), and then we will write to the file using fwrite() and then close the file using fclose() to ensure the data is saved correctly.

Example: In this example, we use fopen() and fwrite() functions to append data to a file in PHP.

<?php
$file = 'example.txt';

// Open file in append mode
$handle = fopen($file, 'a');

// Data to append
$data = "This is a new line of text.\n";

// Write data to file
fwrite($handle, $data);

// Close the file
fclose($handle);

echo "Data has been appended to the file.";
?>

Output:

Using file_put_contents() with FILE_APPEND flag

In this approach we will use the file_put_contents() function which is simpler and more concise method to append data. It allows us to append data to a file by passing the FILE_APPEND flag.

Example: In this example we are using file_put_contents() function to append data to a file in PHP.

<?php
$file = 'example.txt';

// Data to append
$data = "Another line of text.\n";

// Append the data to the file
file_put_contents($file, $data, FILE_APPEND);

echo "Data has been appended to the file using file_put_contents.";
?>
<?php
$file = 'example.txt';

// Append data to the file
$data = "Another line of text.\n";
file_put_contents($file, $data, FILE_APPEND);

// Display the updated file content
$content = file_get_contents($file);
echo "<pre>$content</pre>";
?>

Output:

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