PHP - How Bad Is Fread() Etc?

Hello.

I need help adding a text file content by one and then saving.

My current code is
$myFile = "serving";
$fh = fopen($myFile, 'w+') or die("can't open file");
$conv = fread($fh, 4);
$stringData = $conv++;
fwrite($fh, $stringData);
fclose($fh);

I was told this would work, but of course, it doesn't.  It always returns 1.

I also tried casting it as an int by using
$stringData = (int) $conv++;

I want to load and display the content of a text file (actually it is a cache file). I tested both method using a long for loop as

Code: [Select]
for ($i=0; $i < 10000; $i++) {
$handle = fopen("test.txt", "r");
$text = fread($handle, filesize("test.txt"));
fclose($handle);
echo $text;
}and
Code: [Select]
for ($i=0; $i < 10000; $i++) {
$text = file_get_contents("test.txt");
echo $text;
}
but the results were similar, though with a large distribution of the comparative data. The speed of a method was 0.5 to 2.0 faster than the other one (in various runs). Which method do you recommend? Could you please quote the pros and cons of each method?

Hi

i am trying to read a page that i open but i keep getting errors and dont know why any ideas.

The code im using is:
foreach($url_extq_data as $a)
{
$var .=$a;
}
// now replace all the tags in the substring and out put the data
$from = array("{our_track}", "{name}", "{surname}", "{email}", "{title}", "{gender}", "{dobday}", "{dobmonth}", "{dobyear}", "{address}", "{address2}", "{town}", "{county}", "{postcode}", "{tel}", "{mobile}", "{timestampu}", "{timestampr}", "{username}", "{password}", "{company}", "{siteurl}", "{fax}", "{tracking}");
$to = array("$our_id", "$name", "$surname", "$email", "$title", "$gender", "$dobday", "$dobmonth", "$dobyear", "$address", "$address2", "$town", "$county", "$postcode", "$tel", "$mobile", "$timestampu", "$timestampr", "$username", "$password", "$company", "$siteurl", "$fax", "$trackit");
$final_url = str_replace($from, $to, $var);
// open url and wait for response
$handle = fopen('$final_url', "r");
echo $final_url;
##$contents2 = stream_get_contents($handle);
$contents2 = '';
$contents2 .= fread($handle, 100);
$contents2 = trim($contents2);


This is what i get back:

<br /> <b>Warning</b>: fopen($final_url) [<a href='function.fopen'>function.fopen</a>]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in <b>/home/s/e/searlco/web/public_html/ms_creg.php</b> on line <b>232</b><br /> http://www.cleanleads.co.uk/lead.aspx?campid=30&suppid=284&HSID=1121&HOID=52&FirstName=Dafydd&LastName=Thomas&AddressLine1=31 Cottage Street&Postcode=SS131HR&Gender=M&DateOfBirth=13/10/1980&emailaddress=dait@tedfsdfsdit.com&title=Mr&SupplierSourceCode=11866<br /> <b>Warning</b>: fread(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in <b>/home/s/e/searlco/web/public_html/ms_creg.php</b> on line <b>236</b><br /> ER

Any help anyone???? im lost