Validation of file extension before uploading file

Question

It's possible to check only the file extension, but user can easily rename virus.exe to virus.jpg and "pass" the validation.

For what it's worth, here is the code to check file extension and abort if does not meet one of the valid extensions: (choose invalid file and try to submit to see the alert in action)

var _validFileExtensions = [".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bmp", ".gif", ".png"];    
function Validate(oForm) {
    var arrInputs = oForm.getElementsByTagName("input");
    for (var i = 0; i < arrInputs.length; i++) {
        var oInput = arrInputs[i];
        if (oInput.type == "file") {
            var sFileName = oInput.value;
            if (sFileName.length > 0) {
                var blnValid = false;
                for (var j = 0; j < _validFileExtensions.length; j++) {
                    var sCurExtension = _validFileExtensions[j];
                    if (sFileName.substr(sFileName.length - sCurExtension.length, sCurExtension.length).toLowerCase() == sCurExtension.toLowerCase()) {
                        blnValid = true;
                        break;
                    }
                }
                
                if (!blnValid) {
                    alert("Sorry, " + sFileName + " is invalid, allowed extensions are: " + _validFileExtensions.join(", "));
                    return false;
                }
            }
        }
    }
  
    return true;
}

<form onsubmit="return Validate(this);">
  File: <input type="file" name="my file" /><br />
  <input type="submit" value="Submit" />
</form>

Note, the code will allow user to send without choosing file... if it's required, remove the line if (sFileName.length > 0) { and it's associate closing bracket. The code will validate any file input in the form, regardless of its name.

This can be done with jQuery in less lines, but I'm comfortable enough with "raw" JavaScript and the final result is the same.

In case you have more files, or want to trigger the check upon changing the file and not only in form submission, use such code instead:

var _validFileExtensions = [".jpg", ".jpeg", ".bmp", ".gif", ".png"];    
function ValidateSingleInput(oInput) {
    if (oInput.type == "file") {
        var sFileName = oInput.value;
         if (sFileName.length > 0) {
            var blnValid = false;
            for (var j = 0; j < _validFileExtensions.length; j++) {
                var sCurExtension = _validFileExtensions[j];
                if (sFileName.substr(sFileName.length - sCurExtension.length, sCurExtension.length).toLowerCase() == sCurExtension.toLowerCase()) {
                    blnValid = true;
                    break;
                }
            }
             
            if (!blnValid) {
                alert("Sorry, " + sFileName + " is invalid, allowed extensions are: " + _validFileExtensions.join(", "));
                oInput.value = "";
                return false;
            }
        }
    }
    return true;
}

File 1: <input type="file" name="file1" onchange="ValidateSingleInput(this);" /><br />
File 2: <input type="file" name="file2" onchange="ValidateSingleInput(this);" /><br />
File 3: <input type="file" name="file3" onchange="ValidateSingleInput(this);" /><br />

This will show alert and reset the input in case of invalid file extension.

None of the existing answers seemed quite compact enough for the simplicity of the request. Checking if a given file input field has an extension from a set can be accomplished as follows:

function hasExtension(inputID, exts) {
    var fileName = document.getElementById(inputID).value;
    return (new RegExp('(' + exts.join('|').replace(/\./g, '\\.') + ')$')).test(fileName);
}

So example usage might be (where upload is the id of a file input):

if (!hasExtension('upload', ['.jpg', '.gif', '.png'])) {
    // ... block upload
}

Or as a jQuery plugin:

$.fn.hasExtension = function(exts) {
    return (new RegExp('(' + exts.join('|').replace(/\./g, '\\.') + ')$')).test($(this).val());
}

Example usage:

if (!$('#upload').hasExtension(['.jpg', '.png', '.gif'])) {
    // ... block upload
}

The .replace(/\./g, '\\.') is there to escape the dot for the regexp so that basic extensions can be passed in without the dots matching any character.

There's no error checking on these to keep them short, presumably if you use them you'll make sure the input exists first and the extensions array is valid!

$(function () {
    $('input[type=file]').change(function () {
        var val = $(this).val().toLowerCase(),
            regex = new RegExp("(.*?)\.(docx|doc|pdf|xml|bmp|ppt|xls)$");

        if (!(regex.test(val))) {
            $(this).val('');
            alert('Please select correct file format');
        }
    });
});

I came here because I was sure none of the answers here were quite...poetic:

function checkextension() {
  var file = document.querySelector("#fUpload");
  if ( /\.(jpe?g|png|gif)$/i.test(file.files[0].name) === false ) { alert("not an image!"); }
}

<input type="file" id="fUpload" onchange="checkextension()"/>

check that if file is selected or not

       if (document.myform.elements["filefield"].value == "")
          {
             alert("You forgot to attach file!");
             document.myform.elements["filefield"].focus();
             return false;  
         }

check the file extension

  var res_field = document.myform.elements["filefield"].value;   
  var extension = res_field.substr(res_field.lastIndexOf('.') + 1).toLowerCase();
  var allowedExtensions = ['doc', 'docx', 'txt', 'pdf', 'rtf'];
  if (res_field.length > 0)
     {
          if (allowedExtensions.indexOf(extension) === -1) 
             {
               alert('Invalid file Format. Only ' + allowedExtensions.join(', ') + ' are allowed.');
               return false;
             }
    }