How can I list all files in a directory sorted alphabetically using PHP?

Question

I'm using the following PHP code to list all files and folders under the current directory:

<?php
$dirname = ".";
$dir = opendir($dirname);
?>

<?php
while(false != ($file = readdir($dir)))
{
if(($file != ".") and ($file != "..") and ($file != "index.php"))
{
echo("<a href='$file'>$file</a> <br />");
}
}
?>

The problem is list is not ordered alphabetically (perhaps it's sorted by creation date? I'm not sure). How can I make sure it's sorted alphabetically?

Answer 1

The manual clearly says that:

readdir
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.

What you can do is store the files in an array, sort it and then print it's contents as:

$files = array();
$dir = opendir('.'); // open the cwd..also do an err check.
while(false != ($file = readdir($dir))) {
        if(($file != ".") and ($file != "..") and ($file != "index.php")) {
                $files[] = $file; // put in array.
        }   
}

natsort($files); // sort.

// print.
foreach($files as $file) {
        echo("<a href='$file'>$file</a> <br />\n");
}

Answer 2

Using glob and sort it should work.

Answer 3

You could put all the directory names inside an array like:

$array[] = $file; 

After that you can sort the array with:

sort($array); 

And then print the links with that content.

I hope this help.

Answer 4

<?php
$dirname = ".";
$dir = opendir($dirname);

while(false != ($file = readdir($dir)))
{
if(($file != ".") and ($file != "..") and ($file != "index.php"))
{
  $list[] = $file;
}
}

sort($list);

foreach($list as $item) {
echo("<a href='$item'>$item</a> <br />");
}
?>

Answer 5

I'd recommend moving away from the old opendir()/readdir(). Either use glob() or if you encounter a lot of files in a directory then use the DirectoryIterator Class(es):

http://www.php.net/manual/en/class.directoryiterator.php http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.glob.php

Regards