{"id":1180,"date":"2021-04-18T03:20:51","date_gmt":"2021-04-18T03:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phptutorial.net\/?page_id=1180"},"modified":"2021-09-04T11:09:50","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T11:09:50","slug":"php-delete-file","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.phptutorial.net\/php-tutorial\/php-delete-file\/","title":{"rendered":"PHP Delete File"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Summary<\/strong>: in this tutorial, you will learn how to delete a file in PHP using the unlink() function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id='introduction-to-the-php-delete-file-function'>Introduction to the PHP delete file function <a href=\"#introduction-to-the-php-delete-file-function\" class=\"anchor\" id=\"introduction-to-the-php-delete-file-function\" title=\"Anchor for Introduction to the PHP delete file function\">#<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To delete a file, you use the <code>unlink()<\/code> function:<\/p>\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\" aria-describedby=\"shcb-language-1\" data-shcb-language-name=\"PHP\" data-shcb-language-slug=\"php\"><span><code class=\"hljs language-php\">unlink ( string $filename , resource $context = ? ) : bool<\/code><\/span><small class=\"shcb-language\" id=\"shcb-language-1\"><span class=\"shcb-language__label\">Code language:<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__name\">PHP<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__slug\">php<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n<p>The <code>unlink()<\/code> function has two parameters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><code>$filename<\/code> is the full path to the file that you want to delete.<\/li><li><code>$context<\/code> is a valid context resource.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The <code>unlink()<\/code> function returns true if it deletes the file successfully or false otherwise. If the <code>$filename<\/code> doesn&#8217;t exist, the <code>unlink()<\/code> function also issues a warning and returns <code>false<\/code>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id='php-delete-file-examples'>PHP delete file examples <a href=\"#php-delete-file-examples\" class=\"anchor\" id=\"php-delete-file-examples\" title=\"Anchor for PHP delete file examples\">#<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Let&#8217;s take some examples of using the unlink() function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id='1-simple-php-delete-file-example'>1) Simple PHP delete file example <a href=\"#1-simple-php-delete-file-example\" class=\"anchor\" id=\"1-simple-php-delete-file-example\" title=\"Anchor for 1) Simple PHP delete file example\">#<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The following example uses the unlink() function to delete the readme.txt file:<\/p>\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\" aria-describedby=\"shcb-language-2\" data-shcb-language-name=\"HTML, XML\" data-shcb-language-slug=\"xml\"><span><code class=\"hljs language-xml\"><span class=\"php\"><span class=\"hljs-meta\">&lt;?php<\/span>\n\n$filename = <span class=\"hljs-string\">'readme.txt'<\/span>;\n\n<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">if<\/span> (unlink($filename)) {\n\t<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">echo<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-string\">'The file '<\/span> . $filename . <span class=\"hljs-string\">' was deleted successfully!'<\/span>;\n} <span class=\"hljs-keyword\">else<\/span> {\n\t<span class=\"hljs-keyword\">echo<\/span> <span class=\"hljs-string\">'There was a error deleting the file '<\/span> . $filename;\n}\n<\/span><\/code><\/span><small class=\"shcb-language\" id=\"shcb-language-2\"><span class=\"shcb-language__label\">Code language:<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__name\">HTML, XML<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__slug\">xml<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id='2-delete-all-files-in-a-directory-that-match-a-pattern'>2) Delete all files in a directory that match a pattern <a href=\"#2-delete-all-files-in-a-directory-that-match-a-pattern\" class=\"anchor\" id=\"2-delete-all-files-in-a-directory-that-match-a-pattern\" title=\"Anchor for 2) Delete all files in a directory that match a pattern\">#<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>The following example deletes all files with the .tmp extension:<\/p>\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-code\" aria-describedby=\"shcb-language-3\" data-shcb-language-name=\"HTML, XML\" data-shcb-language-slug=\"xml\"><span><code class=\"hljs language-xml\"><span class=\"php\"><span class=\"hljs-meta\">&lt;?php<\/span>\n\n$dir = <span class=\"hljs-string\">'temp\/'<\/span>;\narray_map(<span class=\"hljs-string\">'unlink'<\/span>, glob(<span class=\"hljs-string\">\"{$dir}*.tmp\"<\/span>));<\/span><\/code><\/span><small class=\"shcb-language\" id=\"shcb-language-3\"><span class=\"shcb-language__label\">Code language:<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__name\">HTML, XML<\/span> <span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">(<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__slug\">xml<\/span><span class=\"shcb-language__paren\">)<\/span><\/small><\/pre>\n\n\n<p>How it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>First, define a variable that stores the path to the directory in which you want to delete files.<\/li><li>Second, use the <code>glob()<\/code> function to search for all files in the directory <code>$dir<\/code> that has the <code>*.tmp<\/code> extension and pass it result to the <code><a href=\"https:\/\/phptutorial.net\/php-tutorial\/php-array_map\/\">array_map()<\/a><\/code> function to delete the files.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Generally, you can change the pattern to delete all matching files in a directory using the <code>array_map()<\/code>, <code>unlink()<\/code> and <code>glob()<\/code> functions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id='summary'>Summary <a href=\"#summary\" class=\"anchor\" id=\"summary\" title=\"Anchor for Summary\">#<\/a><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Use PHP <code>unlink()<\/code> function to delete a file.<\/li><\/ul>\n<div class=\"helpful-block-content\" data-title=\"\">\n\t<header>\n\t\t<div class=\"wth-question\">Did you find this tutorial useful?<\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"wth-thumbs\">\n\t\t\t<button\n\t\t\t\tdata-post=\"1180\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.phptutorial.net\/php-tutorial\/php-delete-file\/\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-post-title=\"PHP Delete File\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-response=\"1\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"wth-btn-rounded wth-yes-btn\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t<svg\n\t\t\t\t\txmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\"\n\t\t\t\t\tviewBox=\"0 0 24 24\"\n\t\t\t\t\tfill=\"none\"\n\t\t\t\t\tstroke=\"currentColor\"\n\t\t\t\t\tstroke-width=\"2\"\n\t\t\t\t\tstroke-linecap=\"round\"\n\t\t\t\t\tstroke-linejoin=\"round\"\n\t\t\t\t\tclass=\"feather feather-thumbs-up block w-full h-full\"\n\t\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t\t\t<path\n\t\t\t\t\t\td=\"M14 9V5a3 3 0 0 0-3-3l-4 9v11h11.28a2 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