Getting file type

[hifibee]

I am in need to get the file type of the given file. I mean whether the given file is jpg or bmp or doc or xls. Please donot suggest me to check the file extension. (There might be a chance to change the extension of a doc file to jpg).

Thanks in Advance

[MrCoder]

Read file headers, as in the binary data that is stored within the first X bytes of the file.

[hifibee]

within the first X bytes of the file.

You mean first 10 bytes of the file?.

[MrCoder]

Why 10?

For example I believe the first 4 bytes of some formatted wave files start with "RIFF"

[hifibee]

I thought X -> 10 (Roman indication).

Is there any unique format in representing the file formats, so that i can able to read the bytes and get the type of the file.

[MrCoder]

Look at this page, some very useful ones listed here.

There is also a very good list here

You could also, if hosted on Linux, use the "file" command.

file /path/to/my/file/myfile.php

Would output..

/path/to/my/file/myfile.php: PHP script text

OR...
mime_content_type

echo mime_content_type("/path/to/my/file/myfile.php"); 

Would output

text/plain

OR...
fileinfo