How can I iterate PHP $_FILES array?

Question

This might be stupid question, but PHPs array $_FILES has very odd format, which I have never used before. Can somebody tell me how can I iterate this array in sane way ? I have used to iterate objects or object like arrays, but this format is very odd for me. Is there any way to iterate this array like object array?

( [attachments] => 
    Array ( 
        [name] => Array ( 
            [0] => test1.png 
            [1] => test2.png 
        ) 
        [type] => Array ( 
            [0] => image/png 
            [1] => image/png 
        ) 
        [tmp_name] => Array ( 
            [0] => /tmp/phpmFkEUe 
            [1] => /tmp/phpbLtZRw 
        )
        [error] => Array ( 
            [0] => 0 
            [1] => 0 
        ) 
        [size] => Array ( 
            [0] => 9855 
            [1] => 3002 
        ) 
    ) 
)

What kind of returned value would you like? Do you want to simply want to loop through the various elements of the array? (`name`, `type`, etc) — Nathanael, May 28 '12 at 06:14

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered May 28 '12 at 06:15

13

Wow, that indeed is odd, are you using <input type="file" name="attachments[]" /> in your markup? If you could afford to change those using unique name=, you won't have that odd format...

To directly answer your question, try:

$len = count($_FILES['attachments']['name']);

for($i = 0; $i < $len; $i++) {
   $fileSize = $_FILES['attachments']['size'][$i];
   // change size to whatever key you need - error, tmp_name etc
}

answered May 28 '12 at 06:15

Andreas Wong

59,630
19
106
123

I believe he might be using the same name for the files to allow for multiple files to be uploaded easily. Although I do agree, the array for `$_FILES` is very odd. – dpk2442 May 28 '12 at 06:18
He is surely using `` so that he can upload multiple files with one field. So it's not possible to use different names. And this may not be intuitive but this is how PHP handles this case and it will be only more common now that multi-file upload is part of HTML. – Okonomiyaki3000 May 28 '12 at 08:42

Okonomiyaki3000 · Answer 2 · 2012-05-28T08:38:12.900

I always thought that this structure was nonsense. So whenever I use a multiple input file field, I do this:

$files = array_map('RemapFilesArray'
    (array) $_FILES['attachments']['name'],
    (array) $_FILES['attachments']['type'],
    (array) $_FILES['attachments']['tmp_name'],
    (array) $_FILES['attachments']['error'],
    (array) $_FILES['attachments']['size']
);

function RemapFilesArray($name, $type, $tmp_name, $error, $size)
{
    return array(
        'name' => $name,
        'type' => $type,
        'tmp_name' => $tmp_name,
        'error' => $error,
        'size' => $size,
    );
}

Then you will have an array that you can iterate and each item in it will be an associative array of the same structure that you would get with a normal, single file input. So, if you already have some function for handling those, you can just pass each of these items to it and it will not require any modification.

By the way, the reason to cast all inputs as array is so that this will work even if you forgot to put the [] on the name of your file input (of course you will only get one file in that case, but it's better than breaking).

I tried your code and `print_r($files)` but the result is empty array? — flowfree, May 28 '12 at 07:48
Probably because I had spelled `attachement` with a `g` for some reason. Give it another shot? — Okonomiyaki3000, May 28 '12 at 08:38

Ozair Kafray · Answer 3 · 2016-10-21T08:03:33.590

4

The simplest way is:

$files = $_FILES['attachments']['name'];
$count = 0;
foreach ($files as $file) {
     $file_name = $file;
     $file_type = $_FILES['attachments']['type'][$count];
     $file_size = $_FILES['attachments']['size'][$count];
     ...
     ...

     ++$count;
}

edited Oct 21 '16 at 08:03

answered May 28 '12 at 06:15

Ozair Kafray

13,351
8
59
84

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered May 28 '12 at 06:16

3

This is the only way to iterate $_FILES.

foreach ($_FILES['attachments']['tmp_name'] as $k => $v) {
  echo $_FILES['attachments']['name'][$k];
  echo $_FILES['attachments']['type'][$k];
}

answered May 28 '12 at 06:16

flowfree

16,356
12
52
76

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered May 28 '12 at 06:19

this way?

foreach((array)$_FILES["attachments"] as $val) {
   foreach((array)$val["name"] as $name) {
      // $name = "test1.png",...
   }
   foreach((array)$val["type"] as $type) {
      // $type = "imagepng",...
   }   
}

art2 · Answer 6 · 2012-11-09T09:39:54.337

I had the same problem while doing multipart forms. Basically I needed to check if theres any file uploads first with 'isset' and then go through every file and do all necessary conditionals.

The fastest way is just to pick one array index element, like ['tmp_name'] and loop that with foreach:

if(isset($_FILES['attachments']) {
   foreach($_FILES['attachments']['tmp_name'] as $key => $value) {
      //do stuff you need/like
   }
}

The main reason to use arrays for multiple file uploads, is that in the end it's much easier to process and iterate. If you use unique names like attachment 1, attachment 2 you run into many problems in more complex situations. I for example, had other upload fields for different attachment categories.

Of course you can do a method, as mentioned before, that fixes the $_FILES array into more clever form, if you find the whole array problematic.

score 1 · Answer 7 · answered May 28 '12 at 06:22

I have tried small demonstration , have a look

<html>
<body>
<form enctype="multipart/form-data" method="post">
<input type="file" name="file[]" />
<input type="file" name="file[]" />

<input type="submit" name="submit" />
</form>
<body>
</html>
<?php
if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD']=='POST'){
    foreach ($_FILES as $k=>$v){
   if(is_array($v)){
       foreach ($v as $sk=>$sv){ 
                $arr[$sk][$k]=$sv;
        }
       }
    }
  echo "<pre>";
  print_r($arr);
 }
?>

Output

Array
(
    [name] => Array
        (
            [file] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 4_Milestone text (1).doc
                    [1] => 2x5 ko condolence ad.jpg
                )

        )

    [type] => Array
        (
            [file] => Array
                (
                    [0] => application/msword
                    [1] => image/jpeg
                )

        )

    [tmp_name] => Array
        (
            [file] => Array
                (
                    [0] => C:\xampp\tmp\php15EF.tmp
                    [1] => C:\xampp\tmp\php163E.tmp
                )

        )

    [error] => Array
        (
            [file] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 0
                    [1] => 0
                )

        )

    [size] => Array
        (
            [file] => Array
                (
                    [0] => 20480
                    [1] => 56642
                )

        )

)

deej · Answer 8 · 2012-05-28T06:51:16.453

Here you go: Below function will help you simplify the file upload in a way that you will be able to process it similar to single upload of the file instead of multiple file upload.

HTML: (form.html)

<form method="post" action="post.php" enctype="multipart/form-data">
<input type="file" name="attachment[]" />
<input type="file" name="attachment[]" />
<input type="file" name="attachment[]" />
<input type="submit" value="Upload" />

PHP: (post.php)

<?php
function simplifyMultiFileArray($files = array())
{
    $sFiles = array();
    if(is_array($files) && count($files) > 0)
    {
        foreach($files as $key => $file)
        {
            foreach($file as $index => $attr)
            {
                $sFiles[$index][$key] = $attr;
            }
        }
    }
    return $sFiles;
}

$sFiles = simplifyMultiFileArray($_FILES['attachment']);
echo '<pre>';
print_r($sFiles);
?>

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered May 03 '14 at 15:47

There are many ways to clean up the $_FILES array and make it more sensible. Here's my prefered way:

foreach ($_FILES as $fieldname => $keys)
{
    foreach ($keys as $key => $list)
    {
        foreach ($list as $no => $value)
        {
            $files[$fieldname][$no][$key] = $value;
        }
    }
}

How can I iterate PHP $_FILES array?

9 Answers9

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