require_once help needed

If I include a file using the require_once function, and that file doesn't exist, or an error is returned, is there a way that I could include a different file in it's place?

 

you can do a file_exists() first
http://php.net/file_exists

...or you can use @include_once() (notice the @ to prevent warnings to be shown) since this doesn't throws a Fatal Error and then conditionally include other files

Just my .2 €...

 

So if I do this

$a=@require_once('somefile.php');
if(!($a)) require_once('thisotherfile.php');

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would that work?

 

Just curious, where would you run into the situation where you are returning a file that doesn't exist?

But, i agree using the file_exists or the @ would be the best way to prevent the error.

You could do something like:

if(file_exists(myfile.php)){
include_once(myfile.php);
} else {
include (yourfile.php);
}

PHP:

 

Well, I'm just trying to slim down some code that would, based on the $_GET['action'] value, include a file named the same as the variable. So if $_GET['action']="somefile", then somefile.php would be included. but if the action value was somefilethatdoesntexist, then I want to default to using a standard file. I had it set up using the switch case construct, but it was long. I wanted to shrink the code up a bit by including $action.'.php' Did that make sense? I like your solution though, it should work perfectly.

Here's how it looks, this will give you a better idea of what I mean:

if(!isset($_COOKIE['admin_name']) || !isset($_COOKIE['admin_pass']) ||
   $_COOKIE['admin_name']!=ADMINNAME || 
   $_COOKIE['admin_pass']!=ADMINPASS)
  {
  header('Location: http://[edit]');
  die();
  }

if(isset($_GET['action']))
  {
  $action=validate($_GET['action'],'','','');

  if(file_exists($action.'.php'))
    {
    require_once($action.'.php');
    }

  else
    {
    require_once('admin_panel.php');
    }
  }

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