Master PHP’s glob() Function: Find Files & Directories Efficiently

PHP's glob() function is a powerful file operation utility that finds files or directories based on a pattern and returns their paths.

Syntax of glob()

glob(pattern, flags)

Here, pattern is the matching pattern string, which can be a wildcard expression such as *.txt (matches files ending with .txt) or a specific file path. flags is optional and controls the function's behavior.

Usage of glob()

Example 1: List all files in a directory

$files = glob('/var/www/html/*');
foreach ($files as $file) {
    echo $file . '<br>';
}

This code searches the directory /var/www/html and prints the paths of all files found. It uses a direct directory path without a wildcard.

Example 2: Match files with a specific extension

$files = glob('/var/www/html/*.txt');
foreach ($files as $file) {
    echo $file . '<br>';
}

This code searches /var/www/html for all files ending with .txt using the wildcard *.txt and prints their paths.

Example 3: Recursively find all files in a directory

function getAllFiles($dir) {
    $files = glob($dir . '/*');
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if (is_dir($file)) {
            getAllFiles($file);
        } else {
            echo $file . '<br>';
        }
    }
}
getAllFiles('/var/www/html');

This recursive function retrieves all files under the specified directory, calling getAllFiles() for each subdirectory.

Example 4: List only directories

$directories = glob('/var/www/html/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR);
foreach ($directories as $directory) {
    echo $directory . '<br>';
}

This code searches /var/www/html for subdirectories only, using the GLOB_ONLYDIR flag to match directories.

The glob() function in PHP is a convenient and efficient tool for locating files or directories with flexible pattern matching and various options to suit different needs.