readdir() includes an empty folder

Question

I have this part of script that echos the folders in "albums" folder and arrange them by the alphabet, but for some reason it also includes an empty folder.

$directory = opendir("albums/");
$items = array();  
while($items[] = readdir($directory))
    sort($items);
closedir($directory);
foreach ($items as $item)
{  
    if(($item != ".") && ($item != "..")){  
        $files[] = $item;
    }
}

What should I do? I think the if(($item != ".") && ($item != "..")) is part of my problem but I can't figure how to handle it.

Rolando Cruz · Answer 1 · 2011-09-11T13:59:48.627

2

The problem is with this line:

while($items[] = readdir($directory))

readdir returns false if no entries are left. That is why you have an extra item in $items

EDIT

while($item = readdir($directory))
{
  $items[] = $item;
  sort($items);
}

edited Sep 11 '11 at 13:59

answered Sep 11 '11 at 13:33

Rolando Cruz

2,834
1
16
24

still not working.. the folder name is "a" and it gives me 'a.php' and 'albums/a.php', and 'albums/a.php' doesn't exist and i don't need it to be exist – Elad Sep 11 '11 at 14:12
I think it would be faster if the `sort` is after the `while`. – ComFreek Sep 11 '11 at 14:13
@Rolando, what if a file is named `0` ? Use `while (($item = readdir($directory)) !== false)` :-) – Arnaud Le Blanc Sep 11 '11 at 15:15

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 11 '11 at 13:31

1

. is the current directory and .. is the parent directory. It's normal that readdir() returns these.

BTW you could simplify your code by using the glob() function:

$files = glob("albums/*");
// that's all

glob("albums/*") will return all entries in the albums directory, sorted alphabetically, and without the dot and dotdot entries.

answered Sep 11 '11 at 13:31

Arnaud Le Blanc

98,321
23
206
194

and it will arrange it by the alphabet?? – Elad Sep 11 '11 at 13:33
but whem i use it like this - it returns albums/aalbums/balbums/calbums/dalbums/e (there are folders named a,b,c,d,e) and i need it return only a/b/c/d/e.. – Elad Sep 11 '11 at 13:44

Dewsworld · Answer 3 · 2011-09-11T13:42:09.627

0

Try this, as it's in sorted order, just array_shift() twice will do this work. But personally I think it's a kinda hacking...

edited Sep 11 '11 at 13:42

answered Sep 11 '11 at 13:33

Dewsworld

13,367
23
68
104

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 11 '11 at 14:29

<?php
$files = array();

foreach (glob('album/*') as $file) {
    if (!is_dir($file)) {
        $files[] = basename($file);
    }
}

sort($files);

You can modify 'album/*' to suit your needs (ex. 'album/*.mp3'). Note that this method is not recursive, so if you need to process subdirectories within the album/ directory, you'll want to modify the code to account for this.

readdir() includes an empty folder

4 Answers4