PHP Cookbook

18.13. Reading Configuration Files

Problem

You want to use configuration files to initialize settings in your programs.

Solution

Use parse_ini_file( ):

$config = parse_ini_file('/etc/myapp.ini');

Discussion

The function parse_ini_file( ) reads configuration files structured like PHP’s main php.ini file. Instead of applying the settings in the configuration file to PHP’s configuration, however, parse_ini_file( ) returns the values from the file in an array.

For example, when parse_ini_file( ) is given a file with these contents:

; physical features
eyes=brown
hair=brown
glasses=yes

; other features
name=Susannah
likes=monkeys,ice cream,reading

The array it returns is:

Array
(
    [eyes] => brown
    [hair] => brown
    [glasses] => 1
    [name] => Susannah
    [likes] => monkeys,ice cream,reading
)

Blank lines and lines that begin with ; in the configuration file are ignored. Other lines with name=value pairs are put into an array with the name as the key and the value, appropriately, as the value. Words such as on and yes as values are returned as 1, and words such as off and no are returned as the empty string.

To parse sections from the configuration file, pass 1 as a second argument to parse_ini_file( ) . Sections are set off by words in square brackets in the file:

[physical]
eyes=brown
hair=brown
glasses=yes

[other]
name=Susannah
likes=monkeys,ice cream,reading

If this file is in /etc/myapp.ini, then:

$conf = parse_ini_file('/etc/myapp.ini',1);

Puts this array in $conf:

Array ( [physical] => Array ( ...