PHP hash_file() Function

The PHP hash_file() function generates a hash value using the contents of a given file.

Syntax

hash_file(algo, filename, binary)

Parameters

`algo`	`Required.` Specify the name of selected hashing algorithm (i.e. "md5", "sha256", "haval160,4", etc..). A list of supported algorithms can be found using hash_algos() function.
`filename`	`Required.` Specify URL describing location of file to be hashed. It supports fopen wrappers.
`binary`	`Optional.` If set to true, outputs raw binary data. Default is false which outputs lowercase hexits.

Return Value

Returns a string containing the calculated message digest as lowercase hexits unless binary is set to true in which case the raw binary representation of the message digest is returned.

Example: hash_file() example

The example below shows the usage of hash_file() function.

<?php
//creating a file to calculate hash of
file_put_contents('test.txt', 'Hello World!');

//displaying the result
echo hash_file('sha1', 'test.txt');
?>

The output of the above code will be:

2ef7bde608ce5404e97d5f042f95f89f1c232871

❮ PHP Hash Reference