PHP binary file: Read and display file contents

Last update on April 16 2025 12:57:23 (UTC/GMT +8 hours)

15. Read and Display Binary File Contents

Write a PHP program that reads and displays the contents of a binary file.

Sample Solution:

PHP Code :

<?php
$filename = "i:/sample.bin";

try {
    $fileHandle = fopen($filename, 'rb');
    if ($fileHandle === false) {
        throw new Exception("Error opening the file.");
    }

    $fileContents = fread($fileHandle, filesize($filename));
    fclose($fileHandle);

    echo "File Contents:\n";
    echo $fileContents;
} catch (Exception $e) {
    echo "An error occurred: " . $e->getMessage();
}
?>

Sample Output:

File Contents: SlickLWFNGWp1 �]� �]� �mBIN��]� (¬(z�%!PS-AdobeFont-1.0: Slick 1.0 %%Title: Slick %Version: 1.0 %%CreationDate: Sat Dec 7 02:08:58 2019 %%Creator: vagrant,,, % Generated by FontForge 20170924 (http://fontforge.sf.net/) %%EndComments 10 dict begin /FontType 1 def /FontMatrix [0.00195312 0 0 0.00195312 0 0 ]readonly def /FontName /Slick def /FontBBox {37 37 475 475 }readonly def /PaintType 0 def /FontInfo 8 dict dup begin /version (1.0) readonly def /FullName (slick) readonly def /FamilyName (Slick) readonly def /Weight (Book) readonly def /FSType 8 def /ItalicAngle 0 def /isFixedPitch false def /ascent 480 def end readonly def /Encoding StandardEncoding def currentdict end currentfile eexec t?��cl�Z���P��'0"��=o��S}���Z�Y����W� ��4*�S��w�(�skNSf�c���S^.a�H�]�+=�=O���_f��FW���-��~1�/�#"e� �0y�H闸"�!��7��O��9�b#C�䋒�ѤV�ܕ��P>ʳ�{Jr��]�F�$�w�������7ֵ�I�-��p�f{>�5���[��x�ۏiË���$r^BX�O�P֥
f��_L�(��z(��%�9�=� � `���Lʢ(O������.͊�d�eR{Np��x� <�(ۥ��Ǳ�`� ��a�S���� W�C֮�(C�@�-������}��#���_�Y��5�`:j pU2�>��,���7�Uٷ�������xO2*��wm�z�������i�Y@m��T� �E ��o[�3Z�k�wڕ����x� n~�d�;H�Ǒ�]+��������pa)?$.�T'¬�y��0�����Z� .��i:��}T7��3��� �&������G� �#L��t��k�~C�?m��쿮#��uƆ��&�d$����l��?�섮'���>Q|N'`(����7�*+hP¬��j��_X:���^�`[_�98��ڶ��5P�>�Oc\�^��fbm��W�8���98�'-{�Ђ�(\"ϗ�Y�#4�:�>��)���̪�.=�/R�OT�P!q#e�$F?�T��x� LQ4��6�L]c5�<�I8��gWUf��ͧ��H��o�<\�p�R�ȼ#�-y �v���`�H��jDz?#�J6Gݢ��?�'��W���7��4���wl��p1�ʜ�+���V�v��5P�L{.n�SX��;A�d�YUi��D��r��G
��a6��7�NQ���,��H����&���9Y���Qi���������Q����ZTVSI �L�/��p ����2�#�|���j �G`жfY���
M j�Fڑ�0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 cleartomark  (-(zzPOST ���������� ���������������¬"

Explanation:

In the above exercise -

The $filename variable holds the name of the binary file you want to read and display.
Inside the try block, we open the file using fopen() with the 'rb' mode to read the file in binary mode.
If there is an error opening the file, we throw an exception with the error message "Error opening the file."
We use fread() to read the file contents into a string variable called $fileContents. The filesize() function determines the size of the file.
After reading the contents, we close the file using fclose().
Finally, we display the file contents using the echo statement.

Flowchart:

For more Practice: Solve these Related Problems:

Write a PHP script to open a binary file and output its raw content in hexadecimal format.
Write a PHP function to read and display a binary file's contents, ensuring that the file pointer is properly managed.
Write a PHP program to detect if a file is binary or text and then display its contents accordingly.
Write a PHP script to convert the binary data from a file into a human-readable string using bin2hex().

PHP Code Editor:

Contribute your code and comments through Disqus.

Previous: Locate and display line numbers.
Next: Read and extract data from an XML file.