PHP file_exists() Function

The PHP file_exists() function checks whether a file or directory exists.

Note: The results of this function are cached. Use clearstatcache() function to clear the cache.

Syntax

file_exists(filename)

Parameters

filename Required. Specify the path to the file or directory. On windows, use //computername/share/filename or \\computername\share\filename to check files on network shares.

Return Value

Returns true if the file or directory specified by filename exists. Otherwise returns false.

Exceptions

Upon failure, an E_WARNING is thrown.

Example:

Lets assume that we have a file called test.txt in the current working directory. The example below demonstrates on using this function to check the existence of a file.

<?php
$file1 = 'test.txt';
$file2 = 'demo.txt';

//checking the existence of $file1
if(file_exists($file1)) {
  echo "The file $file1 exists.\n";
} else {
  echo "The file $file1 does not exist.\n";
}

//checking the existence of $file2
if(file_exists($file2)) {
  echo "The file $file2 exists.\n";
} else {
  echo "The file $file2 does not exist.\n";
}
?>

The output of the above code will be:

The file test.txt exists.
The file demo.txt does not exist.

❮ PHP Filesystem Reference