Connect to an LDAP server

# ldap_connect

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

ldap_connect — Connect to an LDAP server

### Description

ldap_connect(?string `$uri` = `null`): LDAP\Connection|false
Warning

As of PHP 8.3.0, the following signature is deprecated.

ldap_connect(?string `$host` = `null`, int `$port` = 389): LDAP\Connection|false

Creates an LDAP\Connection connection and checks whether the given `uri` is plausible.

> Note: This function does not open a connection. It checks whether the given parameters are plausible and can be used to open a connection as soon as one is needed.

### Parameters

`uri`

  A full LDAP URI of the form `ldap://hostname:port` or `ldaps://hostname:port` for SSL encryption.

  You can also provide multiple LDAP-URIs separated by a space as one string

  Note that `hostname:port` is not a supported LDAP URI as the schema is missing.

`host`

  The hostname to connect to.

`port`

  The port to connect to.

### Return Values

Returns an LDAP\Connection instance when the provided LDAP URI seems plausible. It's a syntactic check of the provided parameter but the server(s) will not be contacted! If the syntactic check fails it returns `false`. ldap_connect() will otherwise return a LDAP\Connection instance as it does not actually connect but just initializes the connecting parameters. The actual connect happens with the next calls to ldap_* functions, usually with ldap_bind().

If no argument is specified then the LDAP\Connection instance of the already opened connection will be returned.

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
8.3.0 | Calling ldap_connect() with separate `hostname` and `port` is now deprecated.
8.1.0 | Returns an LDAP\Connection instance now; previously, a resource was returned.

### Examples

Example #1 Example of connecting to LDAP server.

`<?php
// LDAP variables
$ldapuri = "ldap://ldap.example.com:389"; // your ldap-uri
// Connecting to LDAP
$ldapconn = ldap_connect($ldapuri)
or die("That LDAP-URI was not parseable");
?>`

Example #2 Example of connecting securely to LDAP server.

`<?php
// make sure your host is the correct one
// that you issued your secure certificate to
$ldaphost = "ldaps://ldap.example.com/";
// Connecting to LDAP
$ldapconn = ldap_connect($ldaphost)
or die("That LDAP-URI was not parseable");
?>`

### See Also

- ldap_bind() - Bind to LDAP directory

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