Gets character from file pointer

# fgetc

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

fgetc — Gets character from file pointer

### Description

fgetc(resource `$stream`): string|false

Gets a character from the given file pointer.

### Parameters

`stream`

  The file pointer must be valid, and must point to a file successfully opened by fopen() or fsockopen() (and not yet closed by fclose()).

### Return Values

Returns a string containing a single character read from the file pointed to by `stream`. Returns `false` on EOF.

Warning

This function may return Boolean `false`, but may also return a non-Boolean value which evaluates to `false`. Please read the section on Booleans for more information. Use the === operator for testing the return value of this function.

### Examples

Example #1 A fgetc() example

`<?php
$fp = fopen('somefile.txt', 'r');
if (!$fp) {
echo 'Could not open file somefile.txt';
}
while (false !== ($char = fgetc($fp))) {
echo "$char\n";
}
?>`

### Notes

> Note: This function is binary-safe.

### See Also

- fread() - Binary-safe file read
- fopen() - Opens file or URL
- popen() - Opens process file pointer
- fsockopen() - Open Internet or Unix domain socket connection
- fgets() - Gets line from file pointer

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