Using $_SERVER in PHP

$_SERVER[PHP_SELF] - $_SERVER[SCRIPT_NAME] - $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']

$_SERVER[’PHP_SELF’], $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], and $_SERVER[’SCRIPT_NAME’] all behave in similar ways, they return information about what file is being used. When exposed to some differnt scenarios, you can see in some cases they do behave differently. This can help you decide which is best for what you need in your script.

$_SERVER[’PHP_SELF’]

• http://www.yoursite.com/example/ -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php?a=test -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php/dir/test -- -- -- /dir/test
  

When we use $_SERVER[’PHP_SELF’] we have the file name /example/index.php returned to us both when we did and did not actully type it in the URL. When we appended variables to the end of it, they where truncated and again /example/index.php was returned. The only one that produced a different result was when we appended directories after the file name. In that case, it returned those directories.

$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']

• http://www.yoursite.com/example/ -- -- -- /
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php?a=test -- -- -- /example/index.php?a=test
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php/dir/test -- -- -- /example/index.php/dir/test
  

In all of our examples, this returned exactly what we entered for the URL. It returned a plain /, the file name, the variables, and the appended directories, all just as they had been entered.

$_SERVER[’SCRIPT_NAME’]

• http://www.yoursite.com/example/ -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php?a=test -- -- -- /example/index.php
  
• http://www.yoursite.com/example/index.php/dir/test -- -- -- /example/index.php
  

In all cases here we were returned only the file name /example/index.php regardless of if it was typed, not typed, or anything was appended to it.