How to Read a List of Files from a Folder Using PHP

How to read a list of files from a folder using PHP?

The simplest and most fun way (imo) is glob

foreach (glob("*.*") as $filename) {
    echo $filename."<br />";
}

But the standard way is to use the directory functions.

if (is_dir($dir)) {
    if ($dh = opendir($dir)) {
        while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
            echo "filename: .".$file."<br />";
        }
        closedir($dh);
    }
}

There are also the SPL DirectoryIterator methods. If you are interested

List all files in one directory PHP

Check this out : readdir()


This bit of code should list all entries in a certain directory:

if ($handle = opendir('.')) {

    while (false !== ($entry = readdir($handle))) {

        if ($entry != "." && $entry != "..") {

            echo "$entry\n";
        }
    }

    closedir($handle);
}

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Edit: miah's solution is much more elegant than mine, you should use his solution instead.

Getting the names of all files in a directory with PHP

Don't bother with open/readdir and use glob instead:

foreach(glob($log_directory.'/*.*') as $file) {
    ...
}

PHP list of specific files in a directory

if ($handle = opendir('.')) {
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle)))
    {
        if ($file != "." && $file != ".." && strtolower(substr($file, strrpos($file, '.') + 1)) == 'xml')
        {
            $thelist .= '<li><a href="'.$file.'">'.$file.'</a></li>';
        }
    }
    closedir($handle);
}

A simple way to look at the extension using substr and strrpos

Listing all the folders subfolders and files in a directory using php

function listFolderFiles($dir){
    $ffs = scandir($dir);

    unset($ffs[array_search('.', $ffs, true)]);
    unset($ffs[array_search('..', $ffs, true)]);

    // prevent empty ordered elements
    if (count($ffs) < 1)
        return;

    echo '<ol>';
    foreach($ffs as $ff){
        echo '<li>'.$ff;
        if(is_dir($dir.'/'.$ff)) listFolderFiles($dir.'/'.$ff);
        echo '</li>';
    }
    echo '</ol>';
}

listFolderFiles('Main Dir');

How to list files and folder in a dir (PHP)

PHP 5 has the RecursiveDirectoryIterator.

The manual has a basic example:

<?php

$directory = '/system/infomation/';

$it = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($directory));

while($it->valid()) {

    if (!$it->isDot()) {

        echo 'SubPathName: ' . $it->getSubPathName() . "\n";
        echo 'SubPath:     ' . $it->getSubPath() . "\n";
        echo 'Key:         ' . $it->key() . "\n\n";
    }

    $it->next();
}

?>

---

Edit -- Here's a slightly more advanced example (only slightly) which produces output similar to what you want (i.e. folder names then files).

// Create recursive dir iterator which skips dot folders
$dir = new RecursiveDirectoryIterator('./system/information',
    FilesystemIterator::SKIP_DOTS);

// Flatten the recursive iterator, folders come before their files
$it  = new RecursiveIteratorIterator($dir,
    RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST);

// Maximum depth is 1 level deeper than the base folder
$it->setMaxDepth(1);

// Basic loop displaying different messages based on file or folder
foreach ($it as $fileinfo) {
    if ($fileinfo->isDir()) {
        printf("Folder - %s\n", $fileinfo->getFilename());
    } elseif ($fileinfo->isFile()) {
        printf("File From %s - %s\n", $it->getSubPath(), $fileinfo->getFilename());
    }
}

List all the files and folders in a Directory with PHP recursive function

Get all the files and folders in a directory, don't call function when you have . or ...

Your code :

<?php
function getDirContents($dir, &$results = array()) {
    $files = scandir($dir);

    foreach ($files as $key => $value) {
        $path = realpath($dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $value);
        if (!is_dir($path)) {
            $results[] = $path;
        } else if ($value != "." && $value != "..") {
            getDirContents($path, $results);
            $results[] = $path;
        }
    }

    return $results;
}

var_dump(getDirContents('/xampp/htdocs/WORK'));

Output (example) :

array (size=12)
  0 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/iframe.html' (length=30)
  1 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/index.html' (length=29)
  2 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/js' (length=21)
  3 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/js/btwn.js' (length=29)
  4 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/js/qunit' (length=27)
  5 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/js/qunit/qunit.css' (length=37)
  6 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/js/qunit/qunit.js' (length=36)
  7 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/js/unit-test.js' (length=34)
  8 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/xxxxx.js' (length=30)
  9 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/plane.png' (length=28)
  10 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/qunit.html' (length=29)
  11 => string '/xampp/htdocs/WORK/styles.less' (length=30)

Reading all file contents from a directory - php

$entryname will contain JUST the filename, with no path information. You have to manually rebuild the path yourself. e.g.

$dh = opendir('/path/you/want/to/read/');
while($file = readdir($dh)) {
    $contents = file_get_contents('/path/you/want/to/read/' . $file);
                                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^---include path here
}

Without the explicit path in your "read the file code", you're trying to open and read a file in the script's current working directory, not the director you're reading the filenames from.

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