In function.file-get-contents.php it says "Identical to readfile(), except that file_get_contents() returns the file in a string."   which is wrong... (or misleading at best)...

readfile() immediately outputs the file and the return value from the function is success or failure.

file_get_contents() does not behave like this at all.

I would suggest that the document reads:
"Identical to file(), except that file_get_contents() returns the file in a string."

Since the return values from both functions are the contents of the file, just in different formats (array vs string).

Paul, aka Qube@#php