want to do a simple url shortner
I want to create a simple URL shortner that would do the following:

http://example.com/code

where code would be something like a476u (a random string of letters and numbers).  My only problem is reading the code from the url.  I want all requests to go to index.php where it would read the url and get the code.  But a URL like that would normally point to a folder (where a476u is a folder).

How can I make a request like that go to a file rather then a folder without putting the file name?
want to do a simple url shortner
===

I want to create a simple URL shortner that would do the following:

http://example.com/code

where code would be something like a476u (a random string of letters and numbers).  My only problem is reading the code from the url.  I want all requests to go to index.php where it would read the url and get the code.  But a URL like that would normally point to a folder (where a476u is a folder).

How can I make a request like that go to a file rather then a folder without putting the file name?