Temporary files

resource tmpfile ( void )

Very often you will find you want to work with a file as if it were a "scratchpad" - a holding area where you can write out temporary data for later use. To make this as easy as possible, PHP has a function called tmpfile() which takes no parameters, but will create a temporary file on the system, fopen() it for you, and send back the file handle as its return value.

That file is then yours to read from and write to all you wish, and is deleted as soon as you fclose() the file handle or the script ends. Here is an example of tmpfile() in use:

<?php
    $handle = tmpfile();
    $numbytes = fwrite($handle, $mystring);
    fclose($handle);
    print "$numbytes bytes written\n";
?>

As you can see, tmpfile() is a drop-in replacement for fopen()ing a known file, so it is easy to make use of.

If you want to know where these temp files are being saved, use the sys_get_temp_dir() function - it's new in PHP 5.2.1, but returns a string containing the directory used for creating temporary files.

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