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<fflushfgetcsv>
^Filesystem FunctionsLast updated: Mon, 26 Oct 2026

fgetc

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

fgetc — Gets character from file pointer

Description

function fgetc(resource $stream): string|false

Gets a character from the given file pointer.

Parameters

stream

The file pointer must be valid, and must point to a file successfully opened by fopen() or fsockopen() (and not yet closed by fclose()).

Return Values

Returns a string containing a single character read from the file pointed to by stream. Returns false on EOF.

Warning

This function may return Boolean false, but may also return a non-Boolean value which evaluates to false. Please read the section on Booleans for more information. Use the === operator for testing the return value of this function.

Examples

Example #1 A fgetc() example

<?php
$fp = fopen('somefile.txt', 'r');
if (!$fp) {
    echo 'Could not open file somefile.txt';
}
while (false !== ($char = fgetc($fp))) {
    echo "$char\n";
}
?>

Notes

Note:

This function is binary-safe.

See Also

  • fread() - Binary-safe file read
  • fopen() - Opens file or URL
  • popen() - Opens process file pointer
  • fsockopen() - Open Internet or Unix domain socket connection
  • fgets() - Gets line from file pointer


<fflushfgetcsv>
^Filesystem FunctionsLast updated: Mon, 26 Oct 2026