filesize() always reads 0 bytes even though file size isn't 0 bytes

Question

I wrote some code below, at the moment I'm testing so there's no database queries in the code.

The code below where it says if(filesize($filename) != 0) always goes to else even though the file is not 0 bytes and has 16 bytes of data in there. I am getting nowhere, it just always seems to think file is 0 bytes.

I think it's easier to show my code (could be other errors in there but I'm checking each error as I go along, dealing with them one by one). I get no PHP errors or anything.

$filename = 'memberlist.txt';
$file_directory = dirname($filename);
$fopen = fopen($filename, 'w+');

// check is file exists and is writable
if(file_exists($filename) && is_writable($file_directory)){

    // clear statcache else filesize could be incorrect
    clearstatcache();

    // for testing, shows 0 bytes even though file is 16 bytes
    // file has inside without quotes:   '1487071595 ; 582'
    echo "The file size is actually ".filesize($filename)." bytes.\n";

    // check if file contains any data, also tried !==
    // always goes to else even though not 0 bytes in size
    if(filesize($filename) != 0){

        // read file into an array
        $fread = file($filename);

        // get current time
        $current_time = time();

        foreach($fread as $read){
            $var   = explode(';', $read);
            $oldtime  = $var[0];
            $member_count = $var[1];
        }
            if($current_time - $oldtime >= 86400){
                // 24 hours or more so we query db and write new member count to file
                echo 'more than 24 hours has passed'; // for testing

            } else {
                // less than 24 hours so don't query db just read member count from file
                echo 'less than 24 hours has passed'; // for testing
            }
    } else { // WE ALWAYS END UP HERE
        // else file is empty so we add data
        $current_time = time().' ; ';
        $member_count = 582; // this value will come from a database
        fwrite($fopen, $current_time.$member_count);
        fclose($fopen);
        //echo "The file is empty so write new data to file. File size is actually ".filesize($filename)." bytes.\n"; 
    }

} else {
    // file either does not exist or cant be written to
    echo 'file does not exist or is not writeable'; // for testing
}

Basically the code will be on a memberlist page which currently retrieves all members and counts how many members are registered. The point in the script is if the time is less than 24 hours we read the member_count from file else if 24 hours or more has elapsed then we query database, get the member count and write new figure to file, it's to reduce queries on the memberlist page.

Update 1:

This code:

echo "The file size is actually ".filesize($filename)." bytes.\n";

always outputs the below even though it's not 0 bytes.

The file size is actually 0 bytes.

also tried

var_dump (filesize($filename));

Outputs:

int(0)

Answer 1

You are using:

fopen($filename, "w+") 

According to the manual w+ means:

Open for reading and writing; place the file pointer at the beginning of the file and truncate the file to zero length. If the file does not exist, attempt to create it.

So the file size being 0 is correct.

You probably need r+