Displaying files in a directory with PHP

[susanv]

Good afternoon everyone,

I need to display files in a directory and have the following code, which works great:

<?php
$dir = "documents/";
$dh = opendir($dir);
while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
echo '<a href="documents/'.$file.'">'.$file.'</a><br />';
}
closedir($dh);
?>

The results I get is:

De Beer 01.doc
De Beer 02.doc
.
..
Engelbrecht 01.doc

Can anyone please tell me how to remove the . and .. ?

Any help would be much appreciated.

[John_Betong]

Try this:

<?php 
function read_dir($dir, $array = array())
{ 
  $dh = opendir($dir); 
  $files = array(); 
  while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false)
   { 
       $flag = false; 
      if($file !== '.' && $file !== '..' && !in_array($file, $array))
      { 
        $files[] = $file; 
      } 
   } 
  return $files; 
 } 

?>

[susanv]

Thanks for replying John, but it is still not working... any other ideas? I don't know what else to try.

[Salathe]

What is not working? Please keep everyone up-to-date with the code that you're trying, so we can explain why it might not be working.

[susanv]

I am very new to PHP Salathe, so I have tried a couple of things. This being the last:

<?php
function read_dir($dir, $array = array())
{
$dir = "documents/";
$dh = opendir($dir);
while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
$flag = false;
if($file !== '.' && $file !== '..' && !in_array($file, $array))
{
$files[] = $file;
}
}
return $files;
}
echo '<a href="documents/'.$file.'">'.$file.'</a><br />';
}
closedir($dh);
?>

The output is still:

De Beer 01.doc
De Beer 02.doc
.
..
Engelbrecht 01.doc

[John_Betong]

Thanks for replying John, but it is still not working... any other ideas? I don't know what else to try.

I think your problem was that you were still using your script and not calling the function read_dir()

Try this and once working delete or remark "echo jj,":

#debug stuff - saves typing
define('jj', '<br />DEBUG: ');
define('jk', ' -  ');

echo jj, __LINE__, jk, 'START';

echo jj, __LINE__, jk,
$dir  = "documents/";

# make sure directory exists to prevent endless loop
if( is_dir( $dir ) )
{
echo jj, __LINE__, jk,
  $dh   = opendir($dir); 
  
  while (($file = readdir($dh)) !== false)
  {
    if( $file === '.'   OR   $file === '..')
    {
      # echo '<br />DO NOT ECHO: ' .$file;
    }
    else
    {
      echo '<br /><a href="documents/'.$file.'">'.$file.'</a>';
    }     
  }
}
   
echo jj, __LINE__, jk, 'FINISH'; 

[logic_earth]

Are you really using a version of PHP below 5?
If using a good version (PHP 5+) then:

$files = scandir( '/path/to/dir/' );
foreach ( $files as $file ) {
  if ( $file === '.' || $file === '..' )
    continue;

  echo $file;
}

# Or
$files = array_diff( scandir( $dir ), array( '..', '.' ) );
foreach ( $files as $file )
  echo $file; 

[susanv]

Thank you so much John, that worked!!