When does a php script actually output data?

[edwardp]

When a script is running eg

<?
$num = 0;
for($x=0;$x<100;$x++){
	echo $num."<br>";
	$num++;
	sleep(1);
}
?>

the output is only displayed at the end of the script being run....so my question really becomes....

Is there anyway of the webserver 'sending' data to the client browser as and when it has been processed?

Thanx in advance

[devinemke]

read up on Output Control Functions

consider this example:

ob_start();
for ($i = 1; $i <= 5; $i++)
{
	echo $i . '<br>';
	ob_flush();
	flush();
	sleep(1);
}

[dream_scape]

You don't need to buffer output.

flush() works fine on its own, you just have to send enough data to force a flush.

<?php

for ($i = 1; $i <= 5; $i++) 
{ 
	echo $i . '<br>';
	echo str_pad('',9096)."\n";
	flush(); 
	sleep(2); 
}

You'll have to play around with the data amount, but for just a single digit and line break, I had to use 9096 to get it to work in Safari. Some say 4096 should be enough, but that was not enough for Safari (it flushed every 2 loops then).