Display all files in a directory php

(PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

scandir — List files and directories inside the specified path

Description

scandir(string $directory, int $sorting_order = SCANDIR_SORT_ASCENDING, ?resource $context = null): array|false

Parameters

The directory that will be scanned.

By default, the sorted order is alphabetical in ascending order. If the optional sorting_order is set to SCANDIR_SORT_DESCENDING, then the sort order is alphabetical in descending order. If it is set to SCANDIR_SORT_NONE then the result is unsorted.

For a description of the context parameter, refer to the streams section of the manual.

Return Values

Returns an array of filenames on success, or false on failure. If directory is not a directory, then boolean false is returned, and an error of level E_WARNING is generated.

Changelog

Examples

Example #1 A simple scandir() example

$dir    = '/tmp';
$files1 = scandir($dir);
$files2 = scandir($dir, 1);print_r($files1);
print_r($files2);
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Array
(
    [0] => .
    [1] => ..
    [2] => bar.php
    [3] => foo.txt
    [4] => somedir
)
Array
(
    [0] => somedir
    [1] => foo.txt
    [2] => bar.php
    [3] => ..
    [4] => .
)

Notes

Tip

A URL can be used as a filename with this function if the fopen wrappers have been enabled. See fopen() for more details on how to specify the filename. See the Supported Protocols and Wrappers for links to information about what abilities the various wrappers have, notes on their usage, and information on any predefined variables they may provide.

See Also

• opendir() - Open directory handle
• readdir() - Read entry from directory handle
• glob() - Find pathnames matching a pattern
• is_dir() - Tells whether the filename is a directory
• sort() - Sort an array in ascending order

dwieeb at gmail dot com ¶

10 years ago

Easy way to get rid of the dots that scandir() picks up in Linux environments:

$directory = '/path/to/my/directory';
$scanned_directory = array_diff(scandir($directory), array('..', '.'));
?>

coolbikram0 at gmail dot com ¶

10 months ago

A simple recursive function to list all files and subdirectories in a directory:
function listAllFiles($dir) {
  $array = array_diff(scandir($dir), array('.', '..'));

    foreach (

mmda dot nl at gmail dot com ¶

9 years ago

Here is my 2 cents. I wanted to create an array of my directory structure recursively. I wanted to easely access data in a certain directory using foreach. I came up with the following:

function dirToArray($dir) { $result = array(); $cdir = scandir($dir);
   foreach ($cdir as $key => $value)
   {
      if (!in_array($value,array(".","..")))
      {
         if (is_dir($dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $value))
         {
            $result[$value] = dirToArray($dir . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $value);
         }
         else
         {
            $result[] = $value;
         }
      }
   }

      return

info at remark dot no ¶

4 years ago

Someone wrote that array_slice could be used to quickly remove directory entries "." and "..". However, "-" is a valid entry that would come before those, so array_slice would remove the wrong entries.

eep2004 at ukr dot net ¶

7 years ago

Fastest way to get a list of files without dots.
$files = array_slice(scandir('/path/to/directory/'), 2);

kodlee at kodleeshare dot net ¶

10 years ago

I needed to find a way to get the full path of all files in the directory and all subdirectories of a directory.
Here's my solution: Recursive functions!

function find_all_files($dir)
{
    $root = scandir($dir);
    foreach($root as $value)
    {
        if($value === '.' || $value === '..') {continue;}
        if(is_file("$dir/$value")) {$result[]="$dir/$value";continue;}
        foreach(find_all_files("$dir/$value") as $value)
        {
            $result[]=$value;
        }
    }
    return $result;
}
?>

gambit_642 AT hotmailDOTcom ¶

8 years ago

Needed something that could return the contents of single or multiple directories, recursively or non-recursively,
for all files or specified file extensions that would be
accessible easily from any scope or script.

And I wanted to allow overloading cause sometimes I'm too lazy to pass all params.
class scanDir {
    static private $directories, $files, $ext_filter, $recursive;// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    // scan(dirpath::string|array, extensions::string|array, recursive::true|false)
    static public function scan(){
        // Initialize defaults
        self::$recursive = false;
        self::$directories = array();
        self::$files = array();
        self::$ext_filter = false;// Check we have minimum parameters
        if(!$args = func_get_args()){
            die("Must provide a path string or array of path strings");
        }
        if(gettype($args[0]) != "string" && gettype($args[0]) != "array"){
            die("Must provide a path string or array of path strings");
        }// Check if recursive scan | default action: no sub-directories
        if(isset($args[2]) && $args[2] == true){self::$recursive = true;}// Was a filter on file extensions included? | default action: return all file types
        if(isset($args[1])){
            if(gettype($args[1]) == "array"){self::$ext_filter = array_map('strtolower', $args[1]);}
            else
            if(gettype($args[1]) == "string"){self::$ext_filter[] = strtolower($args[1]);}
        }// Grab path(s)
        self::verifyPaths($args[0]);
        return self::$files;
    }

    static private function

csaba at alum dot mit dot edu ¶

17 years ago

Scandir on steroids:
For when you want to filter your file list, or only want to list so many levels of subdirectories...

function dirList($path="", $types=2, $levels=1, $aFilter=array()) {
//  returns an array of the specified files/directories
//  start search in $path (defaults to current working directory)
//  return $types:  2 => files; 1 => directories; 3 => both;
//  $levels: 1 => look in the $path only; 2 => $path and all children;
//          3 => $path, children, grandchildren; 0 => $path and all subdirectories;
//          less than 0 => complement of -$levels, OR everything starting -$levels down
//                e.g. -1 => everthing except $path; -2 => all descendants except $path + children
//  Remaining argument(s) is(are) a filter array(list) of regular expressions which operate on the full path.
//    First character (before the '/' of the regExp) '-' => NOT.
//    First character (after a possible '-') 'd' => apply to directory name
//    The filters may be passed in as an array of strings or as a list of strings
//  Note that output directories are prefixed with a '*' (done in the line above the return)
   $dS = DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR;
   if (!($path = realpath($path?$path:getcwd()))) return array();    // bad path
   // next line rids terminating \ on drives (works since c: == c:\ on PHP).  OK in *nix?
   if (substr($path,-1)==$dS) $path = substr($path,0,-1);
   if (is_null($types)) $types = 2;
   if (is_null($levels)) $levels = 1;
   if (is_null($aFilter)) $aFilter=array(); // last argument may be passed as a list or as an array
   $aFilter = array_slice(func_get_args(),3);
   if ($aFilter && gettype($aFilter[0])=="array") $aFilter=$aFilter[0];
   $adFilter = array();
   // now move directory filters to separate array:
   foreach ($aFilter as $i=>$filter)                  // for each directory filter...
     if (($pos=stripos(" $filter","d")) && $pos<3) {  // next line eliminates the 'd'
         $adFilter[] = substr($filter,0,$pos-1) . substr($filter,$pos);
         unset($aFilter[$i]); }
   $aFilter = array_merge($aFilter);    // reset indeces $aRes = array();                    // results, $aAcc is an Accumulator
   $aDir = array($path);    // dirs to check
   for ($i=$levels>0?$levels++:-1;($aAcc=array())||$i--&&$aDir;$aDir=$aAcc)
     while ($dir = array_shift($aDir))
         foreach (scandir ($dir) as $fileOrDir)
           if ($fileOrDir!="." && $fileOrDir!="..") {
               if ($dirP = is_dir ($rp="$dir$dS$fileOrDir"))
                 if (pathFilter("$rp$dS", $adFilter))
                     $aAcc[] = $rp;
               if ($i<$levels-1 && ($types & (2-$dirP)))
                 if (pathFilter($rp, $aFilter))
                     $aRes[] = ($dirP?"*":"") . $rp; }
   return $aRes;
}
?>

example usage:
define ("_", NULL);
// this will find all non .jpg, non .Thumbs.db files under c:\Photo
$aFiles = dirList('c:\Photo', _, 0, '-/\.jpg$/i', '-/\\\\Thumbs.db$/');
$aFiles = dirList();    // find the files in the current directory
// next lines will find .jpg files in non Photo(s) subdirectories, excluding Temporary Internet Files
set_time_limit(60);        // iterating from the top level can take a while
$aFiles = dirList("c:\\", _, 0, '/\.jpg$/i', '-d/\\\\Photos?$/i', '-d/Temporary Internet/i');
?>

Note that this function will consume a lot of time if scanning large
directory structures (which is the reason for the '[-]d/.../' filters).

Csaba Gabor from Vienna

Pawel Dlugosz ¶

17 years ago

For directory containing files like (for example) -.jpg the results of scandir are a little "weird" ;)

      $dir

Stan P. van de Burgt ¶

17 years ago

scandir() with regexp matching on file name and sorting options based on stat().

function myscandir($dir, $exp, $how='name', $desc=0)
{
    $r = array();
    $dh = @opendir($dir);
    if ($dh) {
        while (($fname = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
            if (preg_match($exp, $fname)) {
                $stat = stat("$dir/$fname");
                $r[$fname] = ($how == 'name')? $fname: $stat[$how];
            }
        }
        closedir($dh);
        if ($desc) {
            arsort($r);
        }
        else {
            asort($r);
        }
    }
    return(array_keys($r));
} $r = myscandir('./book/', '/^article[0-9]{4}\.txt$/i', 'ctime', 1);
print_r($r);
?>

files can be sorted on name and stat() attributes, ascending and descending:

name    file name
dev     device number
ino     inode number
mode    inode protection mode
nlink   number of links
uid     userid of owner
gid     groupid of owner
rdev    device type, if inode device *
size    size in bytes
atime   time of last access (Unix timestamp)
mtime   time of last modification (Unix timestamp)
ctime   time of last inode change (Unix timestamp)
blksize blocksize of filesystem IO *
blocks  number of blocks allocated

artmanniako at gmail dot com ¶

3 years ago

How i solved problem with '.' and '..'

$x = scandir__DIR__; //any directory
foreach ($x as $key => $value) {
        if ('.' !== $value && '..' !== $value){
               echo $value;
   }
}
Simple and working

fazle dot elahee at gmail dot com ¶

10 years ago

/**
* This function will scan all files recursively in the sub-folder and folder.
*
* @author Fazle Elahee
*
*/

function scanFileNameRecursivly($path = '', &$name = array() )
{
  $path = $path == ''? dirname(__FILE__) : $path;
  $lists = @scandir($path);

    if(!empty($lists))
  {
      foreach($lists as $f)
      {

          if(is_dir($path.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$f) && $f != ".." && $f != ".")
      {
          scanFileNameRecursivly($path.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$f, &$name);
      }
      else
      {
          $name[] = $path.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$f;
      }
      }
  }
  return $name;
}

$path = "/var/www/SimplejQueryDropdowns";
$file_names = scanFileNameRecursivly($path);

echo "

";
var_dump($file_names);
echo "

carneiro at isharelife dot com dot br ¶

10 years ago

/**
     * Get an array that represents directory tree
     * @param string $directory     Directory path
     * @param bool $recursive         Include sub directories
     * @param bool $listDirs         Include directories on listing
     * @param bool $listFiles         Include files on listing
     * @param regex $exclude         Exclude paths that matches this regex
     */
    function directoryToArray($directory, $recursive = true, $listDirs = false, $listFiles = true, $exclude = '') {
        $arrayItems = array();
        $skipByExclude = false;
        $handle = opendir($directory);
        if ($handle) {
            while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
            preg_match("/(^(([\.]){1,2})$|(\.(svn|git|md))|(Thumbs\.db|\.DS_STORE))$/iu", $file, $skip);
            if($exclude){
                preg_match($exclude, $file, $skipByExclude);
            }
            if (!$skip && !$skipByExclude) {
                if (is_dir($directory. DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file)) {
                    if($recursive) {
                        $arrayItems = array_merge($arrayItems, directoryToArray($directory. DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file, $recursive, $listDirs, $listFiles, $exclude));
                    }
                    if($listDirs){
                        $file = $directory . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file;
                        $arrayItems[] = $file;
                    }
                } else {
                    if($listFiles){
                        $file = $directory . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $file;
                        $arrayItems[] = $file;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        closedir($handle);
        }
        return $arrayItems;
    }
?>

phpdotnet at lavavortex dot com ¶

13 years ago

How a ninja may retrieve a list of files, files filtered by extension, or directories:

//NNNIIIinnnjaaa::
//array of files without directories... optionally filtered by extension
function file_list($d,$x){
       foreach(array_diff(scandir($d),array('.','..')) as $f)if(is_file($d.'/'.$f)&&(($x)?ereg($x.'$',$f):1))$l[]=$f;
       return $l;
} //NNNIIIinnnjaaa::
//array of directories
function dir_list($d){
       foreach(array_diff(scandir($d),array('.','..')) as $f)if(is_dir($d.'/'.$f))$l[]=$f;
       return $l;
} /********************************************************************\
                    PRETTY PRETTY LIGHTS (DOCUMENTATION)
\********************************************************************/

/********************************************************************
Overloaded PHP file listing function:
array file_list ( string $directory [, string $file_extension] )

$directory
  path without backslash, e.g. "/home/public_html/blarg"

$file_extention
  optionally filter specific filename extentions, e.g. ".jpg"

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> TRANSLATION <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
file_list("/home");          //return list of files (no directories)
file_list("/home", ".jpg");  //return only .jpg file list
\********************************************************************/

//(note: one slash (/) below and you enable all your test functions, guess where ;-))
/********************************************************************\
// TEST FUNCTIONS... IF THESE WORK, THIS FUNCTION WORKS ON THIS PLATFORM
echo "

echo "

echo "

/************\
RUNTIME NOTES:
file_list($arg1); // php issues a warning that there is no second parameter, but we know that, izz ok
\************/

/*******************************\
TESTED AND WORKING ON 2009.04.30:
OS:     Linux 2.6.9-78.0.17.ELsmp
APACHE: 2.2.9
PHP:    5.2.5
\*******************************/

Nerbert ¶

3 years ago

If you use array_diff() to eliminate "." and ".." you must use array_values() on the result because array_diff() will return an associative array, which may cause problems for a for loop beginning at 0.

$files = array_values(array_diff(scandir($directory), array('..', '.')));

fatpratmatt dot at dot gmail dot com ¶

14 years ago

This function generates a list of all files in the chosen directory and all subdirectories, throws them into a NON-multidimentional array and returns them.

Most of the recursive functions on this page only return a multi-dimensional array.

This is actually a modification of some one else's function (thanks mail at bartrail dot de ;])

function scanDirectories($rootDir, $allData=array()) {
    // set filenames invisible if you want
    $invisibleFileNames = array(".", "..", ".htaccess", ".htpasswd");
    // run through content of root directory
    $dirContent = scandir($rootDir);
    foreach($dirContent as $key => $content) {
        // filter all files not accessible
        $path = $rootDir.'/'.$content;
        if(!in_array($content, $invisibleFileNames)) {
            // if content is file & readable, add to array
            if(is_file($path) && is_readable($path)) {
                // save file name with path
                $allData[] = $path;
            // if content is a directory and readable, add path and name
            }elseif(is_dir($path) && is_readable($path)) {
                // recursive callback to open new directory
                $allData = scanDirectories($path, $allData);
            }
        }
    }
    return $allData;
}
?>

Example output:

print_r(scanDirectories("www"));
---
Array
(
    [0] => www/index.php
    [1] => www/admin.php
    [3] => www/css/css.css
    [4] => www/articles/2007/article1.txt
    [4] => www/articles/2006/article1.txt
    [8] => www/img/img1.png
)

simon dot riget at gmail dot com ¶

6 years ago

This is a simple and versatile function that returns an array tree of files, matching wildcards:

// List files in tree, matching wildcards * and ?
function tree($path){
  static $match;// Find the real directory part of the path, and set the match parameter
  $last=strrpos($path,"/");
  if(!is_dir($path)){
    $match=substr($path,$last);
    while(!is_dir($path=substr($path,0,$last)) && $last!==false)
      $last=strrpos($path,"/",-1);
  }
  if(empty($match)) $match="/*";
  if(!$path=realpath($path)) return;// List files
  foreach(glob($path.$match) as $file){
    $list[]=substr($file,strrpos($file,"/")+1);
  }  // Process sub directories
  foreach(glob("$path/*", GLOB_ONLYDIR) as $dir){
    $list[substr($dir,strrpos($dir,"/",-1)+1)]=tree($dir);
  }

    return @

telefoontoestel59 at hotmail dot com ¶

7 years ago

I was looking for an easy way to get only files from a certain directory. I came up with the following line of code that will result in an array listing only files. the samen can be done for directories ofcourse.

$files = array_filter(scandir($directory), function($file) { return is_file($file); })
?>

Tom ¶

7 years ago

Just was curious to count files and lines in a project

function DirLineCounter( $dir , $result = array('lines_html' => false, 'files_count' => false, 'lines_count' => false ), $complete_table = true )
  {$file_read = array( 'php', 'html', 'js', 'css' );
      $dir_ignore = array();$scan_result = scandir( $dir );

            foreach (