fgets() and fread() - What is the difference in PHP?

The ‘fgets’ function reads a line and stops when it encounters a newline −

<?php
   $file = fopen("test.txt","r");
   echo fgets($file);
   fclose($file);
?>

The above code opens a text file named ‘test’ in the read mode and reads the contents of the file until a newline character is encountered beginning from the starting byte. The file is then closed.

The ‘fread’ function reads raw data and stops after a specific number of bytes or default bytes. This doesn’t depend on whether a newline was encountered or not −

<?php
   $file = fopen("test.txt","r");
   fread($file,"10");
   fclose($file);
?>

The above code opens a text file named ‘test’ in the read mode and reads 10 bytes after the starting byte. The file is then closed.

When to use fgets and fread?

If the user wishes to read a line from a text file, it is suggested to use the ‘fgets’ function. On the other hand, if the user wishes to read some data (which need not be a line) from a file, then the ‘fread’ function can be used.