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# readdir

(PHP 3, PHP 4 )

readdir -- read entry from directory handle

## Description

string readdir ( resource dir_handle)

Returns the filename of the next file from the directory. The filenames are returned in the order in which they are stored by the filesystem.

Please note the fashion in which readdir()'s return value is checked in the examples below. We are explicitly testing whether the return value is identical to (equal to and of the same type as--see Comparison Operators for more information) `FALSE` since otherwise, any directory entry whose name evaluates to `FALSE` will stop the loop (e.g. a directory named "0").

Example 1. List all files in a directory

    // Note that !== did not exist until 4.0.0-RC2
    <?php
    if ($handle = opendir('/path/to/files')) {
        echo "Directory handle: $handle\n";
        echo "Files:\n";

        /* This is the correct way to loop over the directory. */
        while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
            echo "$file\n";
        }

        /* This is the WRONG way to loop over the directory. */
        while ($file = readdir($handle)) {
            echo "$file\n";
        }

        closedir($handle);
    }
    ?>

Note that readdir() will return the `.` and `..` entries. If you don't want these, simply strip them out:

Example 2. List all files in the current directory and strip out `.` and `..`

    <?php
    if ($handle = opendir('.')) {
        while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
            if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {
                echo "$file\n";
            }
        }
        closedir($handle);
    }
    ?>

See also is_dir().

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