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Asked: 2026-06-15T03:14:12+00:00

I am storing a file in a MySQL BLOB field using PHP. Latter I

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I am storing a file in a MySQL BLOB field using PHP. Latter I am trying to send that BLOB data as an attachment in mail.

My question is: how can I get the type of the BLOB object in PHP? That BLOB object can be a PDF or Word file. Without knowing the file type, we can’t send the mail.

Please suggest me the solution, thanks .

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The original file type of the data of a BLOB object is not stored in MySQL, thus one cannot know what file type a file is, instantly.

    In order to get the file type, you can do certain things:

    • In MySQL, create a field with the file type, and when the file data is stored, also store the file type.
    • Check the file signature. Most files have the first bytes the same when they are in the same format. For PDF files, the signature is %PDF, for Word files the signature consists of these bytes (displayed in hexadecimals): 50 4B 03 04 14 00 06 00. I’ve found a table where you can find many file signatures. Notice that checking the signature does not apply to all file formats.
    • To make things easier, you can use the FileInfo functions in PHP.
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