what is the difference between site_url() and base_url()?

Question

As I have read in some resources, base_url() and site_url() functions in codeigniter are almost the same, although my version of codeigniter (2.1.3) does not have a site_url() in it's config.php file (in config directory).

Yet are there differences between them in any way since I have seen site_url() with parameters and never seen base_url() holding none?

Answer 1

echo base_url(); // http://example.com/website echo site_url(); // http://example.com/website/index.php 

if you want a URL access to a resource (such as css, js, image), use base_url(), otherwise, site_url() is better.

for a detailed reference Check this both function in CodeIgniter.

public function site_url($uri = '')     {         if (empty($uri))         {             return $this->slash_item('base_url').$this->item('index_page');         }         $uri = $this->_uri_string($uri);         if ($this->item('enable_query_strings') === FALSE)         {             $suffix = isset($this->config['url_suffix']) ? $this->config['url_suffix'] : '';             if ($suffix !== '')             {                 if (($offset = strpos($uri, '?')) !== FALSE)                 {                     $uri = substr($uri, 0, $offset).$suffix.substr($uri, $offset);                 }                 else                 {                     $uri .= $suffix;                 }             }             return $this->slash_item('base_url').$this->slash_item('index_page').$uri;         }         elseif (strpos($uri, '?') === FALSE)         {             $uri = '?'.$uri;         }         return $this->slash_item('base_url').$this->item('index_page').$uri;     } 

Base URL function.

public function base_url($uri = '')         {             return $this->slash_item('base_url').ltrim($this->_uri_string($uri), '/');         }