note 86104 modified in function.fstat by danbrown

Another ftp_get_contents() approach, using a temperary stream handler. Returns file contents of remote file as string. 

<?php
function ftp_get_contents ($conn_id, $remote_filename) {
    //Create temp handler:
    $tempHandle = fopen('php://temp', 'r+');

    //Get file from FTP assuming that it exists:
    ftp_fget($conn_id, $tempHandle, $remote_filename, FTP_ASCII, 0));

    //Getting detailed stats to check filesize:
    $fstats = fstat($tempHandle);

    return fread($tempHandle, $fstats['size']);
}
?>

(It is recommended to add some error handling)

--was--
Another ftp_get_contents() approach, using a temperary stream handler. Returns file contents of remote file as string. 

function ftp_get_contents ($conn_id, $remote_filename) {
    //Create temp handler:
    $tempHandle = fopen('php://temp', 'r+');

    //Get file from FTP assuming that it exists:
    ftp_fget($conn_id, $tempHandle, $remote_filename, FTP_ASCII, 0));

    //Getting detailed stats to check filesize:
    $fstats = fstat($tempHandle);

    return fread($tempHandle, $fstats['size']);
}

(It is recommended to add some error handling)

http://php.net/manual/en/function.fstat.php