regex or something to find a file in php

Question

I have a name in a database, lets say its "DFectuoso" and some legacy system stored DFectuoso_randomnameofafile.doc.

Now I want to find all the filed "DFectuoso" owns and display links to them in a PHP page.

What would be the way to start on this?

Answer 1

I'd try with glob() in combination with readfile().

Off the top of my head:

$findname = 'DFectuoso';
foreach (glob('/path/to/somewhere/'.$findname.'*') as $file) {
  provide_a_link_to($file);
}

and just pass the file with readfile().

Remember, if you are using $_GET to pass the chosen file to the user, sanitize and validate the permissions first. Don't do just readfile($_GET['chosenFile']); or you'll get in trouble!

Answer 2

A good way is using glob().

$files = glob("PATH_TO_FILES/DFectuoso_*.doc");
echo "<ul>\n";
foreach($files as $f)
    echo '<li><a href="'.$f.'">'.$f."</a></li>\n";
echo "</ul>\n";

Answer 3

In case it's not as simple as finding files with a certain prefix, you can do something like this:

$files = glob('*');

function filter_files($filename) {
    // Do any processing you want on the filename here
    $file_matches = preg_match('/^DFectuoso.*\.(doc|txt)$/', $filename);
    return $file_matches;
}

$found_files = array_filter($files, 'filter_files');