Actually knoeki, speed aside, WorldDMT's suggestion of using $exists() or $isfile() is recommended, because you want to make sure the file the script references to is there. If not, you may get an error. That's why people make checks to prevent errors from happening.

That's what the $findfile() is for.. again.. I must have had some reason to use that over $file() (or $isfile() or $exists() for that matter), but I really don't know why I didn't use it. May or may not have to do with the fact that I ripped this from a larger script I wrote.