This is a list with some methods to retrieve the contents from a directory (folder). The following functions show both the files & the folders located in a specific directory.

scandir()

array scandir ( string $directory [, int $sorting_order [, resource $context]] )

This function only works in PHP5+. It returns an array of files and folders from the specified path. Here’s an usage example:

<?php
$dir    = '/some_files';
$files1 = scandir($dir); // sort in alphabetical order (Ascending)
$files2 = scandir($dir, 1); // sort in alphabetical order (Descending)

echo "<pre>"; print_r($files1); echo "</pre>";
echo "<pre>"; print_r($files2); echo "</pre>";
?>

The example above would result in something like:

Array
(
    [0] => .
    [1] => ..
    [2] => index.php
    [3] => text_file.txt
    [4] => images
)
Array
(
    [0] => images
    [1] => text_file.txt
    [2] => index.php
    [3] => ..
    [4] => .
)

opendir(), while() & readdir()

This is the classical way to scan a directory in PHP. It’s an altternative to scandir() if you are using PHP4. Example:

<?php
$dir = "/images";
$dh  = opendir($dir);
while (false !== ($filename = readdir($dh))) {
    $files[] = $filename;
}
>

To sort the resulted array you can use either sort() (elements will be arranged from lowest to highest) or rsort() (elements will be arranged from highest to lowest).

glob()

array glob ( string $pattern [, int $flags] )

This function finds pathnames matching a specific pattern. To get all files from a directory we’ll use *. It’s a convenient way to replace opendir() and friends

<?php
// get files from current directory
foreach (glob("*") as $filename) {
   echo $filename; echo "<br />";
}

// get files from 'images'
foreach (glob("images/*") as $filename) {
   echo $filename; echo "<br />";
}

// get files from 'documents' that end with .doc
foreach (glob("documents/*.doc") as $filename) {
   echo $filename; echo "<br />";
}
?>

The find out more about these functions, consider checking the PHP Documentation.

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