How do I work with files using the Standard PHP Library in PHP 5?

[chinmay]

With the release of PHP 5, we were given access to the SPL (Standard PHP Library). The SPL is a library of classes and interfaces designed to solve a variety of standard problems. As you may have guessed, reading directories and getting information about the files they contain is one such problem

The DirectoryIterator class is part of the SPL and is a convenient way to read file directories and retrieve file information. You can also write to the files.

Additionally, the DirectoryIterator class has an openFile method that creates a SplFileObject instance for your manipulatory pleasure! Working with the SplFileObjectis outside what we plan to cover in this solution, though, so be sure to check out the SPL documentation to learn more.

Solution
In this example, we use the DirectoryIteratorclass to iterate over a file directory and discover everything there is to know about the example.ini file:

<?php
try
{
// handle the various files in the directory like an array
foreach ( new DirectoryIterator('./') as $Item )
{
echo $Item."\n";
// tell me about this one file
if($Item->getFilename() == 'example.ini')
{
echo "\tProperties of example.ini\n";
echo "\tFile name = "
. $Item->getFilename()
. "\n";
echo "\tPath = "
. $Item->getPath()
. "\n";
echo "\tPath name = "
. $Item->getPathname()
. "\n";
echo "\tPermission = "
. $Item->getPerms()
. "\n";
echo "\tInod = "
. $Item->getInode()
. "\n";
echo "\tSize = "
. $Item->getSize()
. "\n";
echo "\tOwner = "
. $Item->getOwner()
. "\n";
echo "\tGroup = "
. $Item->getGroup()
. "\n";
echo "\tAtime = "
. $Item->getATime()
. "\n";
echo "\tMtime = "
. $Item->getMTime()
. "\n";
echo "\tCTime = "
. $Item->getCTime()
. "\n";
echo "\tType = "
. $Item->getType()
. "\n";
echo "\tWritable = "
. $Item->isWritable()
. "\n";
echo "\tReadable = "
. $Item->isReadable()
. "\n";
echo "\tExecutable = "
. $Item->isExecutable() . "\n";
echo "\tIs file = "
. $Item->isFile()
. "\n";
echo "\tIs directory = "
. $Item->isDir()
. "\n";
echo "\tIs link = "
. $Item->isLink()
. "\n";
echo "\tIs dot = "
. $Item->isDot()
. "\n";
echo "\tTo string = "
. $Item->__toString()
. "\n";
echo '------------------------------------------------'."\n";
echo "\tFile contents = \n";
readfile($Item->getPathName());
echo '------------------------------------------------'."\n";
}
}
echo "\n\nAll the class methods\n";
// give me all the methods available to the Directory Iterator
foreach( get_class_methods('DirectoryIterator') as $methodName)
{
echo $methodName."\n";
}
}
catch(Exception $e){
// handle my exception
echo 'No files Found! Message returned: '.$e->getMessage()."\n";
}
?>

[addisoncave]

where these special files re stored? there must be a source file for these library or they are in core of PHP development suite?