PHP is_file( ) Function Last Updated : 11 Jul, 2025 Comments Improve Suggest changes Like Article Like Report The is_file() function in PHP is an inbuilt function which is used to check whether the specified file is a regular file or not. The name of the file is sent as a parameter to the is_file() function and it returns True if the file is a regular file else it returns False. Syntax: bool is_file($file) Parameters Used: The is_file() function in PHP accepts one parameter. $file: It is a mandatory parameter which specifies the file. Return Value: It returns True if the file is a regular file else it returns false. Exceptions: An E_WARNING is emitted on failure. The result of this function are cached and therefore the clearstatcache() function is used to clear the cache. is_file() function returns false for non-existent files. is_file() function may return unexpected results for files which are larger than 2GB since PHP's integer type is signed and many platforms use 32bit integers. Below programs illustrate the is_file() function. Program 1: php <?php $myfile = "gfg.txt"; // checking whether the file is a // regular file or not if (is_file($myfile)) { echo ("$myfile: regular file!"); } else { echo ("$myfile: not a regular file!"); } ?> Output: gfg.txt: regular file! Program 2 php <?php $myfile = "gfg.txt"; // checking whether the file is a // regular file or not if (is_file($myfile)) { echo ("$myfile: regular file!"); // display the content of regular file echo "Contents of the file are :\n"; readfile($myfile); } else { echo ("$myfile: not a regular file!"); } ?> Output: gfg.txt: regular file! Contents of the file are : Portal for geeks! Reference: https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.is-file.php Comment S Shubrodeep Banerjee Follow 0 Improve S Shubrodeep Banerjee Follow 0 Improve Article Tags : Misc Web Technologies PHP PHP-file-handling PHP-function +1 More Explore PHP Tutorial 8 min read BasicsPHP Syntax 4 min read PHP Variables 5 min read PHP | Functions 8 min read PHP Loops 4 min read ArrayPHP Arrays 5 min read PHP Associative Arrays 4 min read Multidimensional arrays in PHP 5 min read Sorting Arrays in PHP 4 min read OOPs & InterfacesPHP Classes 2 min read PHP | Constructors and Destructors 5 min read PHP Access Modifiers 4 min read Multiple Inheritance in PHP 4 min read MySQL DatabasePHP | MySQL Database Introduction 4 min read PHP Database connection 2 min read PHP | MySQL ( Creating Database ) 3 min read PHP | MySQL ( Creating Table ) 3 min read PHP AdvancePHP Superglobals 6 min read PHP | Regular Expressions 12 min read PHP Form Handling 4 min read PHP File Handling 4 min read PHP | Uploading File 3 min read PHP Cookies 9 min read PHP | Sessions 7 min read Like