PHP $_FILES Array (HTTP File Upload variables) Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report How does the PHP file handle know some basic information like file-name, file-size, type of the file and a few attributes about the file that has been selected to be uploaded? Let's have a look at what is playing behind the scene. $_FILES is a two-dimensional associative global array of items that are being uploaded via the HTTP POST method and holds the attributes of files such as:AttributeDescription[name]Name of file which is uploading[size]Size of the file[type]Type of the file (like .pdf, .zip, .jpeg…..etc)[tmp_name]A temporary address where the file is located before processing the upload request[error]Types of error occurred when the file is uploadingNow see How does the array look like??$_FILES[input-field-name][name]$_FILES[input-field-name][tmp_name]$_FILES[input-field-name][size]$_FILES[input-field-name][type]$_FILES[input-field-name][error]Approach: Make sure you have XAMPP or WAMP installed on your machine. In this article, we will be using the XAAMP server.Let us go through examples, of how this PHP array works in the first example. Example 1 : HTML "; print_r($_FILES); echo " In the above script, before uploading the file Once when we select the file and upload then the function print_r will display the information of the PHP superglobal associative array $_FILES.output arrayExample 2: Add the HTML code followed by PHP script in different files. Let’s make an HTML form for uploading the file index.html HTML <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title>PHP $_FILES Array</title> <style type="text/css"> div { background: #4CB974; text-align: center; font-size: 20px; padding: 30px; color: #fff; font-family: sans-serif; } form { border: 1px solid #1f1f1f; padding: 20px; position: absolute; top: 50%; left: 50%; transform: translate(-50%, -50%); } </style> </head> <body> <form action="file-upload-manager.php" method="post" enctype="multipart/form-data"> <!--multipart/form-data ensures that form data is going to be encoded as MIME data--> <h2>Upload File</h2> <input type="file" name="photo" id="fileSelect"><br><br> <input type="submit" name="submit" value="Upload"><br><br> <!-- name of the input fields are going to be used in our php script--> <div> This Video is made for GFG</div> </form> </body> </html> Now, time to write a PHP script which is able to handle the file uploading system. file-upload-manager.php PHP File Name: " . $file_name . ""; echo " File Type: " . $file_type . ""; echo " File Size: " . $file_size . ""; echo " File Error: " . $file_error . ""; echo " File Temporary Name: " . $file_tmp_name . ""; } } ?> Once we submit the form in the above script, we can later access the information via a PHP superglobal associative array $_FILES. Apart from using the $_FILES array, many in-built functions are playing a major role. After we are done with uploading a file, in the script we will check the request method of the server, if it is POST then it will proceed otherwise the system will throw an error. Later on, we accessed the $_FILES array to get the file name, file size, and type of the file. Once we got those pieces of information print the information of the file using echo. Output: Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.files.phpPHP is a server-side scripting language designed specifically for web development. 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