title: PHP, CURL: function get the response code and return in variable
body: <p>I have the following function:</p>
  
  <pre><code>function file_get_contents_curl($url) {
      $ch = curl_init();
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, random_user_agent());
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, 'Content-type: text/plain');
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
      $data = curl_exec($ch);
      curl_close($ch);
      return $data;
  }
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I need to have some logic inside this function that if the response code of the URL is for example 404, then return <code>null</code> <code>$data</code> variable. I made an example of what I am looking for:</p>
  
  <pre><code>function file_get_contents_curl($url) {
      $ch = curl_init();
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_USERAGENT, random_user_agent());
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HTTPHEADER, 'Content-type: text/plain');
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
      curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url);
      $data = curl_exec($ch);
  
      if (empty($data) or (HTTP response code is 404)) {
          // some kind of an error happened
          die(curl_error($ch));
          curl_close($ch); 
          $data = null;
          return $data;
      } else {
          // everything  is ok
          return $data;
  
      }
  }
  </code></pre>