How to get the file extension in PHP? [duplicate]

Question

I wish to get the file extension of an image I am uploading, but I just get an array back.

$userfile_name = $_FILES['image']['name'];
$userfile_extn = explode(".", strtolower($_FILES['image']['name']));

Is there a way to just get the extension itself?

Answer 1

No need to use string functions. You can use something that's actually designed for what you want: pathinfo():

$path = $_FILES['image']['name'];
$ext = pathinfo($path, PATHINFO_EXTENSION);

Answer 2

This will work as well:

$array = explode('.', $_FILES['image']['name']);
$extension = end($array);

Answer 3

A better method is using strrpos + substr (faster than explode for that) :

$userfile_name = $_FILES['image']['name'];
$userfile_extn = substr($userfile_name, strrpos($userfile_name, '.')+1);

But, to check the type of a file, using mime_content_type is a better way : http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.mime-content-type.php