PHP: is_file - Manual

Description

bool is_file ( string filename )

Returns TRUE if the filename exists and is a regular file.

Example 1. is_file() example

<? var_dump(is_file('a_file.txt')) . "\n"; var_dump(is_file('/usr/bin/')) . "\n"; ?>
The above example will output:
bool(true) bool(false)

Note: The results of this function are cached. See clearstatcache() for more details.

Tip: As of PHP 5.0.0 this function can also be used with some URL wrappers. Refer to Appendix L for a listing of which wrappers support stat() family of functionality.

See also is_dir() and is_link().

User Contributed Notes
is_file

08-Mar-2005 11:02


### Symbolic links are resolved ###



If you pass a symlink (unix symbolic link) as parameter, is_file will resolve the symlink and will give information about the refered file. For example:



  touch file

  ln -s file link

  echo '<? if (is_file("link")) echo "y\n"; ?>' | php -q



will print "y".



is_dir resolves symlinks too.

ludvig dot ericson at gmail dot com
25-Oct-2004 01:06


I tend to use alot of includes, and I found that the is_file is based on the script executed, not ran.

if you request /foo.php and foo.php looks like this:

<?php

include('foobar/bar.php');

?>

and bar.php looks like this:

<?php

echo (is_file('foo/bar.txt'));

?>



Then PHP (on win32, php 5.x) would look for /foo/bar.txt and not /foobar/foo/bar.txt.

you would have to rewrite the is_file statement for that, or change working directory.

Noting this since I sat with the problem for some time,



cheers, Toxik.

rehfeld.us
03-Sep-2004 05:04


regarding rlh at d8acom dot com method,



It is incorrect. Well, it works but you are not guaranteed the file extension using that method.



for example :   filename.inc.php



your method will tell you the ext is "inc", but it is in fact "php"



heres a way that will work properly.



<?php



$dh = opendir($dir);



while (false !== ($document = readdir($dh))) {

    $pos = strrpos($document, '.');

    if (false !== $pos && strlen($document) > $pos + 1) {

        $ext = substr($document, $pos + 1);

    }

}



?>

rlh at d8acom dot com
12-Feb-2003 07:17


I do a lot of file parsing and have found the following technique extremely useful:



while (false !== ($document = readdir($my_dir))) 

{

    $ext=explode('.',$document);

    if($document != '.' && $document != '..' && $ext[1])

    {

                       'Do something to file...'

              }

}



It gets around the fact that, when working on website pages, the html files are read as directories when downloaded. It also allows you to extend the usefulness of the above method by adding the ability to determine file types e.g.



if($document != '.' && $document != '..' && $ext[1]=='htm')

or

if($document != '.' && $document != '..' && $ext[1]=='doc')

andreas dot stagl at fits dot at
27-Mar-2002 01:34


if you're running apache as a service on a win32 machine, an you try to determinate if a file on an other pc in your network exists - ex.: is_file('//servername/share/dir1/dir2/file.txt') - you may return false when you're running the service as LocalSystem. To avoid this, you have to start the Apache-Service as a 'registered' domain user.

quietust at ircN dot org
13-Dec-2001 10:20


In PHP 4.1.0 under win32, this seems to print out a warning message if the file does not exist (using error_reporting = E_ALL & ~E_NOTICE).

amraam at ao dot net
11-Mar-2000 08:56


It seems that is_file doesn't return true for a file that is 0 bytes.  Perhaps it is something with the file system.  I am using IIS 3.0 on an NT4 box.  I worked around it using !is_dir($filename) but that seems a clunky way to do it.