What best practices should be followed when creating and deleting files in PHP to avoid similar issues in the future?

When creating and deleting files in PHP, it is important to always check if the file exists before attempting to create or delete it. This helps avoid errors such as overwriting existing files or trying to delete non-existent files. Additionally, it is recommended to use absolute paths when working with files to ensure the correct file is being accessed. 

// Check if file exists before creating it
$filename = 'example.txt';

if (!file_exists($filename)) {
    $file = fopen($filename, 'w');
    fclose($file);
}

// Check if file exists before deleting it
if (file_exists($filename)) {
    unlink($filename);
}

Keywords

file handling error handling security permissions file deletion

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