PHP directory listing of all files script

List files in a directory

scandir() is convenient for a simple listing. Skip the dot entries, escape output sent to HTML, and do not expose private server paths to visitors.

$dir = __DIR__ . '/docs';
foreach (scandir($dir) as $name) {
    if ($name === '.' || $name === '..') {
        continue;
    }
    echo htmlspecialchars($name) . '<br>';
}

This example shows the recommended starting pattern. Continue below for variations, explanation and the original practical examples.

$handle=opendir("."); // open the current directory
$handle=opendir("E:\\my_dir\\"); // OR use the path 

while (($file = readdir($handle))!==false) {
echo "$file <br>";
}
closedir($handle);

Many times we have to display the list of files in a directory. We can keep the script in any location and by using the file path we can display the files inside the directory.

opendir():

Open the directory handle, returns False on failure.

readdir():

Read entry from directory handle.

closedir():

Close directory handle

Reading and displaying all images present inside a directory

We can use the same code to read all the files in a directory and assuming that all are images, we can display them. Here is the code to do this.

$path='images/';// change the path here related to this page
$handle=opendir($path);

while (($file = readdir($handle))!==false) {
if(strlen($file)>3){echo "<img src=$path$file> <br>";}
}
closedir($handle);

You can also list the files and directories by using dir function scandir()

Example: Recursively Listing Files in Subdirectories

function listDirectory($dir) {
    $files = scandir($dir);
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if ($file != '.' && $file != '..') {
            $path = $dir . '/' . $file;
            if (is_dir($path)) {
                listDirectory($path);
            } else {
                echo $path . "
";
            }
        }
    }
}

listDirectory('E:\\dir-name\\sub-dir');

Example: Sorting Files by Last Modified Date

$dir = 'your-directory';
$files = scandir($dir);
usort($files, function($a, $b) use ($dir) {
    return filemtime("$dir/$b") - filemtime("$dir/$a");
});

foreach ($files as $file) {
    if ($file != '.' && $file != '..') {
        echo "$file - " . date("F d Y H:i:s", filemtime("$dir/$file")) . "<br>";
    }
}

Example: Filtering Specific File Types

$dir = 'your-directory';
$files = scandir($dir);

foreach ($files as $file) {
    if (preg_match('/\.txt$/', $file)) {
        echo $file . "<br>";
    }
}

Directory Functions
PHP File handling

Subhendu Mohapatra

Author & Instructor at plus2net

I write and maintain practical tutorials on Python, PHP, SQL, JavaScript, HTML, jQuery, and web development at plus2net. The tutorials focus on clear explanations, working examples, and code that readers can test and adapt while learning.

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	06-07-2021
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