PHP Manual: file

file_exists

(PHP 3, PHP 4, PHP 5)

file_exists -- Checks whether a file or directory exists

Description

bool file_exists ( string filename )

Returns TRUE if the file or directory specified by filename exists; FALSE otherwise.

On windows, use //computername/share/filename or \\computername\share\filename to check files on network shares.

Example 1. Testing whether a file exists

<?php
$filename = '/path/to/foo.txt';

if (file_exists($filename)) {
    echo "The file $filename exists";
} else {
    echo "The file $filename does not exist";
}
?>

Note: The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache() for more details.

Tip: As of PHP 5.0.0 this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Appendix M for a listing of which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.

Warning

This function returns FALSE for files inaccessible due to safe mode restrictions. However these files still can be included if they are located in safe_mode_include_dir.