What are the differences between web paths and directory paths in PHP and how can they affect functions like file_exists?

Web paths are URLs that users use to access files on a website, while directory paths are file system paths that PHP uses to locate files on the server. When using functions like file_exists in PHP, it's important to use directory paths to ensure accurate file checking. To convert a web path to a directory path, you can use the $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] variable to get the root directory of the server and concatenate it with the web path. 

// Convert a web path to a directory path
$webPath = '/path/to/file.txt';
$directoryPath = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . $webPath;

// Check if the file exists using the directory path
if (file_exists($directoryPath)) {
    echo "File exists!";
} else {
    echo "File does not exist.";
}

Keywords

web paths directory paths PHP file_exists functions

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