PHP: What is the best and easiest way to check if directory is empty or not

Question

I got a root directory with 100s of dynamically generated folders. As time goes some of these folders will need to be extirpated from system on the condition that this(ese) directories(s) must be empty. What would be the best shortest, easiest and/or most effective way to achieve that?

[`rmdir`](http://php.net/manual/en/function.rmdir.php) will fail for non-empty directory, so just `$deleted = @rmdir('/path/to/folder');` — dev-null-dweller, Sep 08 '13 at 15:56
Thanks... going the `glob` way as suggested by both @Matteo and *Jeffman* — ErickBest, Sep 08 '13 at 16:14

score 31 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 08 '13 at 15:54

31

Use glob :

if (count(glob("path/*")) === 0 ) { // empty

A nice thing about glob is that it doesn't return . and .. directories.

answered Sep 08 '13 at 15:54

5

use `GLOB_NOSORT` flag to increase performance – Preexo Apr 03 '14 at 17:02
but if ./.. are not reported, then such dir would not be deleted, as it is not empty ... so it seems to be not good for empty dir removal – Jeffz Oct 25 '15 at 22:24
This wrong way, glob() ignores hidden files by default, http://php.net/manual/ru/function.glob.php#68869 So, if you add the mask to get hidden files in glob() you've got the same solution, as @Matteo wrote below. – Vijit Jan 30 '17 at 07:35
Considering coding convenience this is efficient. Considering performance this may be bad if glob first need to deliver +1000 files for each dir to check after which count tells how many files there are. – Rbgo Web Oct 25 '17 at 09:01

score 8 · Answer 2 · edited Jul 10 '14 at 18:59

8

You can count the items contained in the folder. The first two items are . and .., so just check the items count.

$files_in_directory = scandir('path/to');
$items_count = count($files_in_directory);
if ($items_count <= 2)
{
    $empty = true;
}
else {
    $empty = false;
}

edited Jul 10 '14 at 18:59

Alexey

5,898
9
44
81

answered Sep 08 '13 at 15:58

mcont

1,749
1
22
33

Is this going to be quicker and most effective way than the `glob` suggested by @jeffman ? – ErickBest Sep 08 '13 at 16:01
2

I benchmarked the two solutions and actually Jeffman one's is faster (on one folder). Jeffman: `5.388E-5 seconds` My solution: `2.909E-5 seconds` – mcont Sep 08 '13 at 16:08
1

+1...for elaborating further. Thanks – ErickBest Sep 08 '13 at 16:10

PHP: What is the best and easiest way to check if directory is empty or not

2 Answers2

Linked