PHP filetype() Function

The PHP filetype() function returns the type of the specified file.

Syntax

filetype(filename)

Parameters

Return Value

Returns the type of the file. Possible values are:

• fifo
• char
• dir
• block
• link
• file
• socket
• unknown

Returns false if an error occurs. It will also produce an E_NOTICE message if the stat call fails or if the file type is unknown.

Exceptions

Upon failure, an E_WARNING is thrown.

Example:

Lets assume that we have a file called test.txt in the current working directory. The example below demonstrates on using this function to get the file type.

<?php
//getting the file type
echo "file type: ".filetype("test.txt")."\n";

//current directory
echo "file type: ".filetype("/")."\n";

//one directory up
echo "file type: ".filetype("..")."\n";
?>

The output of the above code will be:

file type: file
file type: dir
file type: dir