DAY 11
PHP – Including Files
There are two PHP functions which can
be used to included one PHP file into another PHP file.
- The include() Function
- The require() Function
This is a strong point of PHP which
helps in creating functions, headers, footers, or elements that can be reused
on multiple pages. This will help developers to make it easy to change the
layout of complete website with minimal effort. If there is any change required
then instead of changing thousand of files just change included file.
The include() Function
The include() function takes all the
text in a specified file and copies it into the file that uses the include
function. If there is any problem in loading a file then the include() function
generates a warning but the script will continue execution.
Assume you want to create a common
menu for your website. Then create a file menu.php with the following content.
<a href="http://www.tutorialspoint.com/index.htm">Home</a> -
<a href="http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ebxml">ebXML</a> -
<a href="http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ajax">AJAX</a> -
<a href="http://www.tutorialspoint.com/perl">PERL</a><br />
Now create as many pages as you like
and include this file to create header. For example now your test.php file can
have following content.
<html>
<body>
<?php include("menu.php"); ?>
<p>This is an example to show how to include PHP file!</p>
</body>
</html>
It will produce the following result
−
The require() Function
The require() function takes all the
text in a specified file and copies it into the file that uses the include
function. If there is any problem in loading a file then the require() function
generates a fatal error and halt the execution of the script.
So there is no difference in
require() and include() except they handle error conditions. It is recommended
to use the require() function instead of include(), because scripts should not
continue executing if files are missing or misnamed.
You can try using above example with
require() function and it will generate same result. But if you will try
following two examples where file does not exist then you will get different
results.
<html>
<body>
<?php include("xxmenu.php"); ?>
<p>This is an example to show how to include wrong PHP file!</p>
</body>
</html>
This will produce the following
result −
This is an example to show how to include wrong PHP file!
Now lets try same example with
require() function.
<html>
<body>
<?php require("xxmenu.php"); ?>
<p>This is an example to show how to include wrong PHP file!</p>
</body>
</html>
This time file execution halts and
nothing is displayed.
NOTE − You may get plain warning messages or fatal error messages
or nothing at all. This depends on your PHP Server configuration.
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