fscanf

Parses input from a file according to a format

&reftitle.description; ``array``int``false``null```fscanf` `resource` `stream` `string` `format` `mixed` `vars`

The function `fscanf` is similar to `sscanf`, but it takes its input from a file associated with `stream` and interprets the input according to the specified `format`.

Any whitespace in the format string matches any whitespace in the input stream. This means that even a tab (`\t`) in the format string can match a single space character in the input stream.

Each call to `fscanf` reads one line from the file.

&reftitle.parameters;

`stream`

- &fs.file.pointer;
&strings.scanf.parameter.format;

`vars`

- The optional assigned values.

&reftitle.returnvalues;

If only two parameters were passed to this function, the values parsed will be returned as an array. Otherwise, if optional parameters are passed, the function will return the number of assigned values. The optional parameters must be passed by reference.

If there are more substrings expected in the `format` than there are available within `string`, &null; will be returned. On other errors, &false; will be returned.

&reftitle.examples;

### `fscanf` Example

    <?php
    $handle = fopen("users.txt", "r");
    while ($userinfo = fscanf($handle, "%s\t%s\t%s\n")) {
        list ($name, $profession, $countrycode) = $userinfo;
        //... do something with the values
    }
    fclose($handle);
    ?>

### Contents of users.txt

    javier  argonaut        pe
    hiroshi sculptor        jp
    robert  slacker us
    luigi   florist it

&reftitle.seealso;

- `fread`
- `fgets`
- `fgetss`
- `sscanf`
- `printf`
- `sprintf`