19.7. Processing All Files in a Directory Recursively
Problem
You want to iterate over all files
in a directory. For example, you want to create a
select
box in a form that lists all the files in a
directory.
Solution
Get a directory handle with opendir( )
and then
retrieve each filename with readdir( )
:
$d = opendir('/tmp') or die($php_errormsg); while (false !== ($f = readdir($d))) { print "$f\n"; } closedir($d);
Discussion
The code in the solution tests the return value of readdir( )
with the
nonidentity operator
(!==
) so that the code works properly with
filenames that evaluate to false
, such as a file
named 0.
The function readdir( )
returns each entry in a
directory, whether it is a file, directory, or something else (such
as a link or a socket). This includes the metaentries
“.”
(current directory) and “..”
(parent directory). To just return files, use the is_file( )
function as well:
print '<select name="files">'; $d = opendir('/usr/local/upload') or die($php_errormsg); while (false !== ($f = readdir($d))) { if (is_file("/usr/local/upload/$f")) { print '<option> ' . $f . '</option>'; } } closedir($d); print '</select>';
Because readdir( )
returns only the filename of
each directory entry, not a full pathname, you have to prepend the
directory name to $f
before you pass it to
is_file( )
.
PHP also has an
object-oriented interface to directory
information. The dir( )
function returns an object
on which you can call read( )
, rewind( )
, and close( )
methods, which act like ...
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