file_exists() function in PHP

The file_exists method check whether a file or directory exists or not. It accepts the path of the file or directory to be checked as the parameter. The following are its uses −

• It is useful when you need to know whether a file exists or not before processing.

• With that, use this function while creating a new file to know whether the file already exists or not.

Syntax

file_exists($file_path)

Parameters

• file_path − Set the path of file or directory to be checked for existence.Required.

Return

The file_exists() method returns.

• True, if the file or directory exists
• False, if the file or directory does not exist

Example

Let us see an example that checks for “candidate.txt” file and display a message even if the file does not exist.

 Live Demo

<?php
$myfile = '/doc/candidate.txt';
if (file_exists($myfile)) {
   echo "$myfile exists!";
} else {
   echo "$myfile does not exist!";
}
?>

The following is the output showing the file does not exist.

Output

/doc/candidate.txt does not exist!