PHP Zip

Zip archives are files that are compressed using the zip compression algorithm. They are often used to reduce the size of files and make them easier to transfer over the internet or store on disk. A zip archive can contain one or more files, and it typically has a .zip file extension.

PHP Zip Functions

PHP provides several built-in functions that allow you to work with zip archives. Some of the most commonly used functions are:

zip_open()

The zip_open() function is used to open a zip archive and create a handle that can be used to read the contents of the archive.

zip_read()

The zip_read() function is used to read the contents of a zip archive file. It returns a zip_entry resource that can be used to get information about the file and extract its contents.

zip_entry_open()

The zip_entry_open() function is used to open a zip_entry resource and create a handle that can be used to extract the contents of the file.

zip_entry_read()

The zip_entry_read() function is used to read the contents of a file in a zip archive. It returns the contents of the file as a string.

zip_entry_close()

The zip_entry_close() function is used to close a zip_entry handle.

zip_close()

The zip_close() function is used to close a zip archive handle.

Example Usage

Let's take a look at an example of how the PHP zip functions can be used to extract the contents of a zip archive file:

$zip = zip_open('example.zip');

if ($zip) {
    while ($zip_entry = zip_read($zip)) {
        $filename = zip_entry_name($zip_entry);
        $handle = zip_entry_open($zip, $zip_entry);
        $contents = zip_entry_read($zip_entry);
        zip_entry_close($handle);

        // Do something with $filename and $contents
    }

    zip_close($zip);
}

In this example, we first open the zip archive using the zip_open() function. We then loop through each file in the archive using the zip_read() function. For each file, we open a handle using zip_entry_open(), read the contents of the file using zip_entry_read(), and then close the handle using zip_entry_close(). Finally, we close the zip archive handle using zip_close().

Conclusion

In this article, we've discussed the PHP zip functions and how they can be used to work with zip archives. We've explained what zip archives are, and provided examples of how to use some of the most commonly used PHP zip functions to extract the contents of a zip archive file. By using these functions in your PHP applications, you can easily work with zip archives and reduce the size of files for transfer over the internet or storage on disk.