php - String compare returns false -

i'm coding basic maillist system our website. "subscribe.php" page uses $_get method parameters. add email addresses in text file (maillist.txt).

before adding address, check it's not in file yet.

problem: comparing 2 identical strings returns false..

what i've tried:

• i made sure maillist.txt in utf-8
• i tried setting header in utf-8
• i tried using strcmp()
• i tried converting both strings utf8_encode

here "subscribe.php" code: (i erased regex , isset checks)

<?php     // utf-8 ----> things i've added, trying solve problem     header('content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8');     ini_set('default_charset', 'utf-8');     ini_set("auto_detect_line_endings", true);      $email = strip_tags($_get['email']); // safety      $maillist = fopen('maillist.txt', 'r+');      // check if email in database     $insert = true;     while ($line = fgets($maillist)) {         $line = rtrim($line, "\r\n");         if (utf8_encode($line) == utf8_encode($email)) { // $line == $email returns false             echo $line . "=" . $email . "<br/>";             $insert = false;             break;         } else echo $line . "!=" . $email . "<br/>";     }      if ($insert) {         fputs($maillist, $email . "\n");         echo 'success';     } else echo "fail";      fclose($maillist); ?> 

taking shot in dark here...

1. first, store values variables , reuse those, may printing different stuff you're comparing.

2. trim variables make sure there aren't extraneous whitespaces before or after.

   while ($line = fgets($maillist)) {     $line = rtrim($line, "\r\n");      //the 2 variables want compare     $linevalue = trim(utf8_encode($line));     $email     = trim(utf8_encode($email));      //compare them them out     if ($linevalue == $email) {         echo $linevalue . "==" . $email . "<br/>"; //compare trimmed variables         $insert = false;         break;     } else {         echo $linevalue . "!=" . $email . "<br/>";     } } 

that may not problem, place start if you're seeing same string eyes..