Question

I’ve placed an echo before and after it stops running. The file file1.txt is written, but then the final echo confirmation is not returned.

<?php
$fh = fopen("file1.txt", 'w') or die("Failed to create file");
$text = <<<_END
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3

_END;
fwrite($fh, $text) or die("Could not write to file");

echo "This shows up in my browser";
$fclose($fh);
echo "This doesn't";
?>

Answer 1

Your script has error

Replace

 $fclose($fh);

With

 fclose($fh);

To see all the error add this to the top of your page

error_reporting(E_ALL);
ini_set('display_errors','On');

Since you are learning if you want to play around with variable functions this would work

$fclose = "fclose";
$fclose ($fh);

Finally a simpler version of your code for learning purpose using file_put_contents http://php.net/manual/en/function.file-put-contents.php

$text = <<<_END
Line 1
Line 2
Line 3
_END;
file_put_contents ("file1.txt", $text );
echo "This shows up in my browser";