[RESOLVED] get_file_contents

[neroag]

Can anyone tell me why the following code results in a var_dump() = NULL

$url = "http://www.mysite.co.uk";
$bigString = get_file_contents( $url );
function get_file_contents(){
var_dump($bigString);
}

[laserlight]

The $bigString variable does not exist in get_file_contents(), and you have tried to pass an argument to get_file_contents() when it looks like you want get_file_contents() to take no arguments.

[scrupul0us]

1) why not use PHP's already abled file_get_contents?

2)

function get_file_contents($url)
{
return var_dump($url);
}

$url = 'http://www.mysite.co.uk';
$bigString = get_file_contents( $url ); 

based on what i see here... all that function is gunna do is spit back the url to you... var_dump just dumps out information about a variable... if u want the contents of the webpage you can go:

$url = 'http://www.mysite.co.uk';
$bigString = file_get_contents( $url ); 
//big string now contains ALL the html of the url

[neroag]

Thank you for that scrupul0us.

so if the $bigString is holding the contents of the webpage can i do a preg_match for a string on them contents?,
thats the only reason i was wanting to see the contents of the $bigString was so i can match a string againts the contents of the website

[scrupul0us]

yes u are correct... from there u can perform any operation on the string