What is the difference between a language construct and a “built-in” function in PHP ?

Difference between file_get_contents and cURL in PHP

Last Updated : 13 Sep, 2021

file_get_contents() Function: This PHP function is used to retrieve the contents of a file. The contents can be stored as a string variable. Alternatively, it also simulates HTTP transactions, involving requests via GET method and responses using POST method respectively. Primarily, it is best-suited for simple HTTP manipulations and to get single-line JSON responses.

Example:

PHP

<?php 

// Reading contents from the 
// GeeksforGeeks homepage 
$homepage = file_get_contents(
  "https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/"); 

echo $homepage; 

?>

Output: It will redirect to GeeksforGeeks home page.

cURL: It is a third party library that simulates HTTP requests and responses in a much more efficient way. It can handle asynchronous HTTP requests and complex communications like callback functions or break point continual transferring. It is also suitable for carrying out cross-domain based FTP request. Also, it can be used in different applications like proxy setup and Website Scraping etc.

Example:

PHP

<?php 

// From URL to get webpage contents 
$url = "https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/"; 

// Initialize a CURL session. 
$ch = curl_init(); 

// Return Page contents. 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); 

// Grab URL and pass it to the variable 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url); 

$result = curl_exec($ch); 

echo $result; 

?>

Output: It will redirect to GeeksforGeeks home page.

file_get_contents() Method	cURL
Handles simple HTTP communications.	Handles complex HTTP communications.
Supports simple HTTP GET and HTTP POST operations.	Supports HTTP PUT, certificates in addition to GET and POST requests.
Doesn't support caching, cookies, etc.	Supports caching, cookies progress reporting etc.
It uses HTTP and HTTPS protocols for communications.	It uses HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, FTPS protocols.
It can be used to read the file content.	It can be used to read, edit, update, delete files from server.
Slow in operation.	Secure and fast in operation.
Easy to understand.	Complex to understand.

What is the difference between a language construct and a “built-in” function in PHP ?

Y

yashchuahan

Improve

Article Tags :

Similar Reads

Difference between try-catch and if-else statements in PHP

The try and catch are used in PHP for handling exceptions like other languages such as C++, Java, etc. An exception is unexpected result or unexpected state of a program that can be handled by the program itself. To handle this kind of unexpected results in PHP, try and catch are used. For more deta

How to Convert File Content to Byte Array in PHP ?

Converting file content to a byte array in PHP is a useful technique for various applications, including file manipulation, data processing, and when working with binary files like images or PDFs. PHP offers multiple ways to read file content and convert it into a byte array, providing flexibility t

What is the difference between a language construct and a â€œbuilt-inâ€ function in PHP ?

In programming, language constructs and built-in functions are often misinterpreted with one another due to the fact that both have more or less alike behavior. But they differ from each other in the way the PHP interpreter interprets them. Every programming language consists of tokens and structure

What is the difference between MySQL, MySQLi and PDO?

To understand the difference between MySQL, MySQLi, and PDO, we must know about each one of them individually. These are nothing but the APIs of PHP that is used to access the MySQL databases and tables. The developers can choose either one of them for their project, however, it must be known that M

Difference between isset() and array_key_exists() Function in PHP

isset() function The isset() function is an inbuilt function in PHP which checks whether a variable is set and is not NULL. This function also checks if a declared variable, array or array key has null value, if it does, isset() returns false, it returns true in all other possible cases. Syntax: boo

Copy the entire contents of a directory to another directory in PHP

Given a directory and the task is to copy the content of the directory to another directory using PHP functions. There are many functions used to copy the content of one directory to another. Used Functions: copy() Function: The copy() function is used to make a copy of a specified file. It makes a

What is the difference between HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME in PHP?

HTTP_HOST: It is fetched from HTTP request header obtained from the client request Example: Website: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org HTTP_HOST: www.geeksforgeeks.org HTTP_SERVER: It is fetched from the server name based on the host configuration. Example: Website: https://www.geeksforgeeks.org HTTP_SE

What is the difference between echo, print, and print_r in PHP?

echo: echo is not a function rather it is described as a language construct. It accepts an list of argument (multiple arguments can be passed) and returns no value or returns void. It cannot be used as a variable function in PHP. It is used to display the output of parameters that is passed to it. I

How to post data using file_get_contents in PHP ?

The file_get_contents() function in PHP is used to read the contents of a file and make HTTP requests using GET and get HTTP responses using POST methods. The HTTP POST request can be made using the $context parameter of the file_get_contents() function, which posts the specified data to the URL spe

How to copy a file from one directory to another using PHP ?

The copy() function in PHP is used to copy a file from source to target or destination directory. It makes a copy of the source file to the destination file and if the destination file already exists, it gets overwritten. The copy() function returns true on success and false on failure. Syntax: bool