Putting data from 3 text files into 3 variables

Question

I have the following code, which gets the data from 3 text files and puts them into 3 variables. How can I refactor this to make it smaller?

$handle = fopen($template_filename, "r");
if (filesize($template_filename) > 0)
{
    $email_template = fread($handle, filesize($template_filename));
}
fclose($handle);

// get the subject from a text file
$handle = fopen($subject_filename, "r");
if (filesize($subject_filename) > 0)
{
    $subject_template = fread($handle, filesize($subject_filename));
}
fclose($handle);

// get the footer from a text file
$handle = fopen($footer_filename, "r");
if (filesize($footer_filename) > 0)
{
    $footer_template = fread($handle, filesize($footer_filename));
}
fclose($handle);

Answer 1

For one thing, you can use file_get_contents:

$email_template = file_get_contents($template_filename);
$subject_template = file_get_contents($subject_filename);
$footer_template = file_get_contents($footer_filename);

Answer 2

Encapsulate the repetitive parts in a function openFile(), open files with file_get_contents, and finally, check for empty file size via strlen in the ternary and return the contents or an error ("Empty file." in this case - would suggest you replace with an error function call or something).

function openFile($filename){
    $contents  = file_get_contents($filename);
    return strlen($contents) > 0 ? $contents : "Empty file.";
}

$email_template = openFile($email_filename);
$subject_template = openFile($subject_filename);
$footer_template = openFile($footer_filename);

# Test case
echo openFile("http://www.google.com");