PHP scandir causing extra files

Question

Why is it when i use scandir using PHP i get extra values

$portID = $this->id;
$dir = '/home/sites/mydomain.com/public_html/public/images/'.$portID;
$contents = scandir($dir);

Is there something i dont know about the function which produces more values than are actually in the folder?

Answer 1

here's an alternative using opendir

$dir = "/your/path";
if (is_dir($dir)) {
    if ($d = opendir($dir)) {
           while (($file = readdir($d)) !== false) {
                if ( $file != "."  && $file != ".." ){
                    echo "filename: $file \n";
                    $files[]=$file;
                }
           }
        closedir($d);
    }
}

if you insist on using scandir(), then use a loop to go through the array of files returned by scandir(), and then remove those you don't want from the array

Answer 2

Here is the easiest way to get rid of the dots and unnecessary files or directories.

// remove unnecessary dots etc
$result = array_diff(scandir('/dir/to/scan/'), array('.', '..', '.DS_Store'));
print_r($result);

Hope this is helpful. Thanks!

Answer 3

I don't have enough rep to comment on just somebody 's answer so this will have to be in a separate answer. As of PHP 5.3 there is the FilesystemIterator which extends the DirectoryIterator and skips dot-files by default.

Answer 4

While it's hard to tell without the actual output of scandir(), I guess you mean the additional . and .. entries.

They show up in the examples in the manual as well. You will have to filter them out manually.

. refers to the current directory .. refers to the parent directory.

This tradition comes from the Unix world, where exactly historically, I don't know. I guess it is because it allows you to quickly see the permissions for the current and parent directories on each call of ls .

Answer 5

there's nothing wrong with Pekka's answer; I'll just add a more declarative and mockable realization from SPL :

class DirectoryFilterDots extends RecursiveFilterIterator
{
    function __construct($path)
    {
        parent::__construct(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path));
    }

    function accept()
    {
        return !$this->getInnerIterator()->isDot();
    }

    function key()
    {
        return $this->getInnerIterator()->getPathname();
    }
}