How to Obtain File Names within a Directory Using PHP

In PHP programming, retrieving the file names present within a directory can be accomplished through various methods. This article showcases several approaches for accessing and displaying the file names in the current directory.

DirectoryIterator (Recommended):

DirectoryIterator is a modernized and preferred method for iterating over directory contents. Its usage is demonstrated below:

foreach (new DirectoryIterator('.') as $file) {
    if($file->isDot()) continue;
    print $file->getFilename() . '
';
}

scandir:

The scandir function scans the specified directory and returns an array containing the file names. Here's an example:

$files = scandir('.');
foreach($files as $file) {
    if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
    print $file . '
';
}

opendir and readdir:

This approach involves opening the directory using opendir and then iterating through the files using readdir. Here's how it's done:

if ($handle = opendir('.')) {
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
        if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
        print $file . '
';
    }
    closedir($handle);
}

glob:

glob is a pattern-matching function that can be used to retrieve files matching a specified pattern. Here's how it can be utilized:

foreach (glob("*") as $file) {
    if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
    print $file . '
';
}

The glob function allows for more flexibility in specifying file patterns, making it suitable for specific file name matching needs.