How to get file name when user select a file via <input type="file" />?

I've seen similar questions before,which ends up with no solution,because of security reasons.

But today I see hostmonster has successfully implemented this,when I open a ticket and attach a file in their backend.

It works both with firefox and IE(version 8 to be exact).

I've verified it's exactly client side scripting,no request is sent(with firebug).

Now,can we re-consider this question?

You can get the file name, but you cannot get the full client file-system path.

Try to access to the value attribute of your file input on the change event.

Most browsers will give you only the file name, but there are exceptions like IE8 which will give you a fake path like: "C:\fakepath\myfile.ext" and older versions (IE <= 6) which actually will give you the full client file-system path (due its lack of security).

document.getElementById('fileInput').onchange = function () {
  alert('Selected file: ' + this.value);
};

You can use the next code:

    function showname () {
      var name = document.getElementById('fileInput'); 
      alert('Selected file: ' + name.files.item(0).name);
      alert('Selected file: ' + name.files.item(0).size);
      alert('Selected file: ' + name.files.item(0).type);
    };

HTML

<body>
    <p>
        <input type="file" id="fileInput" multiple onchange="showname()"/>
    </p>    
</body>

just tested doing this and it seems to work in firefox & IE

<html>
    <head>
        <script type="text/javascript">
            function alertFilename()
            {
                var thefile = document.getElementById('thefile');
                alert(thefile.value);
            }
        </script>
    </head>
    <body>
        <form>
            <input type="file" id="thefile" onchange="alertFilename()" />
            <input type="button" onclick="alertFilename()" value="alert" />
        </form>
    </body>
</html>

I'll answer this question via Simple Javascript that is supported in all browsers that I have tested so far (IE8 to IE11, Chrome, FF etc).

Here is the code.

function GetFileSizeNameAndType()
        {
        var fi = document.getElementById('file'); // GET THE FILE INPUT AS VARIABLE.

        var totalFileSize = 0;

        // VALIDATE OR CHECK IF ANY FILE IS SELECTED.
        if (fi.files.length > 0)
        {
            // RUN A LOOP TO CHECK EACH SELECTED FILE.
            for (var i = 0; i <= fi.files.length - 1; i++)
            {
                //ACCESS THE SIZE PROPERTY OF THE ITEM OBJECT IN FILES COLLECTION. IN THIS WAY ALSO GET OTHER PROPERTIES LIKE FILENAME AND FILETYPE
                var fsize = fi.files.item(i).size;
                totalFileSize = totalFileSize + fsize;
                document.getElementById('fp').innerHTML =
                document.getElementById('fp').innerHTML
                +
                '<br /> ' + 'File Name is <b>' + fi.files.item(i).name
                +
                '</b> and Size is <b>' + Math.round((fsize / 1024)) //DEFAULT SIZE IS IN BYTES SO WE DIVIDING BY 1024 TO CONVERT IT IN KB
                +
                '</b> KB and File Type is <b>' + fi.files.item(i).type + "</b>.";
            }
        }
        document.getElementById('divTotalSize').innerHTML = "Total File(s) Size is <b>" + Math.round(totalFileSize / 1024) + "</b> KB";
    }

    <p>
        <input type="file" id="file" multiple onchange="GetFileSizeNameAndType()" />
    </p>

    <div id="fp"></div>
    <p>
        <div id="divTotalSize"></div>
    </p>

*Please note that we are displaying filesize in KB (Kilobytes). To get in MB divide it by 1024 * 1024 and so on*.

It'll perform file outputs like these on selecting Snapshot of a sample output of this code

How to get file name when user select a file via <input type="file" />?

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