ConFoo 2025

basename

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

basenameReturns trailing name component of path

Description

basename(string $path, string $suffix = ""): string

Given a string containing the path to a file or directory, this function will return the trailing name component.

Note:

basename() operates naively on the input string, and is not aware of the actual filesystem, or path components such as "..".

Caution

basename() is locale aware, so for it to see the correct basename with multibyte character paths, the matching locale must be set using the setlocale() function. If path contains characters which are invalid for the current locale, the behavior of basename() is undefined.

Parameters

path

A path.

On Windows, both slash (/) and backslash (\) are used as directory separator character. In other environments, it is the forward slash (/).

suffix

If the name component ends in suffix this will also be cut off.

Return Values

Returns the base name of the given path.

Examples

Example #1 basename() example

<?php
echo "1) ".basename("/etc/sudoers.d", ".d").PHP_EOL;
echo
"2) ".basename("/etc/sudoers.d").PHP_EOL;
echo
"3) ".basename("/etc/passwd").PHP_EOL;
echo
"4) ".basename("/etc/").PHP_EOL;
echo
"5) ".basename(".").PHP_EOL;
echo
"6) ".basename("/");
?>

The above example will output:

1) sudoers
2) sudoers.d
3) passwd
4) etc
5) .
6)

See Also

  • dirname() - Returns a parent directory's path
  • pathinfo() - Returns information about a file path

add a note

User Contributed Notes 4 notes

up
53
Anonymous
7 years ago
It's a shame, that for a 20 years of development we don't have mb_basename() yet!

// works both in windows and unix
function mb_basename($path) {
if (preg_match('@^.*[\\\\/]([^\\\\/]+)$@s', $path, $matches)) {
return $matches[1];
} else if (preg_match('@^([^\\\\/]+)$@s', $path, $matches)) {
return $matches[1];
}
return '';
}
up
10
(remove) dot nasretdinov at (remove) dot gmail dot com
16 years ago
There is only one variant that works in my case for my Russian UTF-8 letters:

<?php
function mb_basename($file)
{
return
end(explode('/',$file));
}
><

It is intented for UNIX servers
up
4
KOmaSHOOTER at gmx dot de
19 years ago
If you want the current path where youre file is and not the full path then use this :)

<?php
echo('dir = '.basename (dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']),"/"));
// retuns the name of current used directory
?>

Example:

www dir: domain.com/temp/2005/january/t1.php

<?php
echo('dirname <br>'.dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']).'<br><br>');
// returns: /temp/2005/january
?>

<?php
echo('file = '.basename ($PHP_SELF,".php"));
// returns: t1
?>

if you combine these two you get this
<?php
echo('dir = '.basename (dirname($_SERVER['PHP_SELF']),"/"));
// returns: january
?>

And for the full path use this
<?php
echo(' PHP_SELF <br>'.$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'].'<br><br>');
// returns: /temp/2005/january/t1.php
?>
up
5
swedish boy
15 years ago
Here is a quick way of fetching only the filename (without extension) regardless of what suffix the file has.

<?php

// your file
$file = 'image.jpg';

$info = pathinfo($file);
$file_name = basename($file,'.'.$info['extension']);

echo
$file_name; // outputs 'image'

?>
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