Http_redirect () vs header ()

Question

Possible duplicate:
php vs php_redirect header location

Over the years, when I used PHP, I was always redirected to another URL through the header('Location: example.com') function header('Location: example.com') . http_redirect() today, I noticed that there is a function specifically for redirection called http_redirect()

Are there any advantages when using http_redirect() to header() or vice versa?

---

References:

• http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.header.php
• http://php.net/manual/en/function.http-redirect.php

Answer 1

While http_redirect() does some things for you (such as exiting, flushing output buffers and sending a common redirect body), this is not a standard function (it comes as part of an extension that has not even been preloaded), and therefore you do not you can rely on availability.