Are there any specific functions or methods that should be used instead of the include function when including external PHP files in a PHP script?

When including external PHP files in a script, it is recommended to use the `require_once` function instead of `include` to ensure that the file is included only once to prevent any errors that may arise from multiple inclusions. This function will include the file and throw a fatal error if the file is not found, making it a more reliable method for including external files in PHP scripts. 

<?php
require_once 'external_file.php';
// Code that uses the functions or classes from external_file.php
?>

Keywords

require require_once include_once include_path autoloading

Related Questions