File System commands in php

hello i had a question.
i have made a function which opens an existing text file in write and append mode. puts the data in the file and then closes the file. i call this function in a loop and then add each row from my database to this text file. what i want is that the next time i run the php script the contents in the file should become empty. is there any way to do it. i am pasting my function which i have written. thanks

function appendToFile ($filename, $data) {
//Open file
$file = fopen($filename,"aw");
//Write data
fwrite($file,$data);
//Close file
fclose($file);
}

At the top of the script, just use the unlink command. That will delete the file. Then when your function is called, it will recreate it. Each time the script it called, it will delete the file and so forth...

It sounds like you want a temp file... Use tmpfile() and get rid of your function. If you're calling in a while loop, there's no reason for it to be a function. Plus, every time you call it, you fopen() and fclose() which is unnecessary.

Just create the temp file before the loop, write to it in the loop, and fclose() is after the loop.

if i create tmpfile...will it get deleted after my script runs???

also if i use unlink....the file will get deleted...i like that idea...how do i create the file everytime them my script runs..
for example if the file name is test.txt
so do i do
fopen("/home/abc/test.txt", $data)

fopen("/home/abc/test.txt", 'w+');