There are several methods get a file extension using PHP:

<?
$filename = 'myfile.jpg';
 
// 1. The "explode/end" method
$ext = end(explode('.', $filename));
 
// 2. The "strrchr" method
$ext = substr(strrchr($filename, '.'), 1);
 
// 3. The "strrpos" method
$ext = substr($filename, strrpos($filename, '.') + 1);
 
// 4. The "preg_replace" method
$ext = preg_replace('/^.*\.([^.]+)$/D', '$1', $filename);
 
// 5. The "never use this" method
//   From: http://php.about.com/od/finishedphp1/qt/file_ext_PHP.htm
$exts = split("[/\\.]", $filename);
$n = count($exts)-1;
$ext = $exts[$n];
?>