PHP parse_ini_file() Function

❮ PHP Filesystem Reference

Example

Contents of "test.ini":

[names]
me = Robert
you = Peter

[urls]
first = "http://www.example.com"
second = "https://www.w3schools.com"

PHP code:

<?php
print_r(parse_ini_file("test.ini"));
?>

The output of the code above will be:

Array (
[me] => Robert
[you] => Peter
[first] => http://www.example.com
[second] => https://www.w3schools.com
)

Definition and Usage

The parse_ini_file() function parses a configuration (ini) file and returns the settings.

Tip: This function can be used to read in your own configuration files, and has nothing to do with the php.ini file.

Note: The following reserved words must not be used as keys for ini files: null, yes, no, true, false, on, off, none. Furthermore, the following reserved characters must not be used in the key: {}|&~!()^".

Syntax

parse_ini_file(file, process_sections, scanner_mode)

Parameter Values

Parameter	Description
file	Required. Specifies the ini file to parse
process_sections	Optional. If set to TRUE, it returns is a multidimensional array with section names and settings included. Default is FALSE
scanner_mode	Optional. Can be one of the following values: INI_SCANNER_NORMAL (default) INI_SCANNER_RAW (means option values will not be parsed) INI_SCANNER_TYPED (means that boolean, null and integer types are preserved when possible. "true", "on", "yes" are converted to TRUE. "false", "off", "no", "none" are converted to FALSE. "null" is converted to NULL. Numeric strings are converted to integer type if possible)

Parameter

Description

file

Required. Specifies the ini file to parse

process_sections

Optional. If set to TRUE, it returns is a multidimensional array with section names and settings included. Default is FALSE

scanner_mode

Optional. Can be one of the following values:

INI_SCANNER_NORMAL (default)
INI_SCANNER_RAW (means option values will not be parsed)
INI_SCANNER_TYPED (means that boolean, null and integer types are preserved when possible. "true", "on", "yes" are converted to TRUE. "false", "off", "no", "none" are converted to FALSE. "null" is converted to NULL. Numeric strings are converted to integer type if possible)

Technical Details

Return Value:	An array on success, FALSE on failure
PHP Version:	4.0+
PHP Changelog:	PHP 7.0: Hash marks (#) is no longer recognized as comments PHP 5.6.1: Added INI_SCANNER_TYPED mode PHP 5.3: Added optional scanner_mode parameter

More Examples

Example

Contents of "test.ini":

[names]
me = Robert
you = Peter

[urls]
first = "http://www.example.com"
second = "https://www.w3schools.com"

PHP code (with process_sections set to true):

<?php
print_r(parse_ini_file("test.ini",true));
?>

The output of the code above will be:

Array
(
[names] => Array
  (
  [me] => Robert
  [you] => Peter
  )
[urls] => Array
  (
  [first] => http://www.example.com
  [second] => https://www.w3schools.com
  )
)

❮ PHP Filesystem Reference