What is the Difference and Connection Between fileinode Function and file_exists Function? Detailed Comparison and Explanation

gitbox 2025-09-25

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<span class="hljs-keyword">echo "The following content will deeply analyze the differences and connections between the fileinode and file_exists functions.\n";
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<p><span class="hljs-keyword">echo <span><span class="hljs-string">"<p>In PHP, <code>fileinode()

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4. Summary of Connections and Differences

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Connection: Both functions are used for file operations, and both return false when the file does not exist (file_exists returns boolean false, and fileinode returns false).

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Difference:";
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Different purposes: file_exists is used for existence checks, while fileinode is used to get inode information of a file.

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Different return types: Boolean vs Integer.

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Different use cases: Existence check vs Low-level file identification and comparison.

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5. Conclusion

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In simple terms, file_exists is the preferred method for checking if a file exists, while fileinode is more useful for system-level file identification and comparison. Use file_exists when checking file existence, and use fileinode when comparing low-level file information.

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