PHP Get a list of a directory’s subdirectories.

Problem

How can I retrieve all subdirectories of a given directory without using files,..(parent directory), and then utilize each directory in a function?

Asked by Adrian M.

Solution #1

Option 1:

The GLOB ONLYDIR option can be used with glob().

Option 2:

Another option is to use array_filter to filter the list of directories. However, note that the code below will skip valid directories with periods in their name like .config.

$dirs = array_filter(glob('*'), 'is_dir');
print_r($dirs);

Answered by ghostdog74

Solution #2

Here’s how to use GLOB to fetch only directories:

$directories = glob($somePath . '/*' , GLOB_ONLYDIR);

Answered by Coreus

Solution #3

The DirectoryIterator class in Spl provides a straightforward interface for reading filesystem directories’ contents.

$dir = new DirectoryIterator($path);
foreach ($dir as $fileinfo) {
    if ($fileinfo->isDir() && !$fileinfo->isDot()) {
        echo $fileinfo->getFilename().'<br>';
    }
}

Answered by stloc

Solution #4

Almost identical to your prior query:

$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(
                new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($yourStartingPath), 
            RecursiveIteratorIterator::SELF_FIRST);

foreach($iterator as $file) {
    if($file->isDir()) {
        echo strtoupper($file->getRealpath()), PHP_EOL;
    }
}

Replace strtoupper with the function you want to use.

Answered by Gordon

Solution #5

In Array:

function expandDirectoriesMatrix($base_dir, $level = 0) {
    $directories = array();
    foreach(scandir($base_dir) as $file) {
        if($file == '.' || $file == '..') continue;
        $dir = $base_dir.DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR.$file;
        if(is_dir($dir)) {
            $directories[]= array(
                    'level' => $level
                    'name' => $file,
                    'path' => $dir,
                    'children' => expandDirectoriesMatrix($dir, $level +1)
            );
        }
    }
    return $directories;
}

//access:

$dir = '/var/www/';
$directories = expandDirectoriesMatrix($dir);

echo $directories[0]['level']                // 0
echo $directories[0]['name']                 // pathA
echo $directories[0]['path']                 // /var/www/pathA
echo $directories[0]['children'][0]['name']  // subPathA1
echo $directories[0]['children'][0]['level'] // 1
echo $directories[0]['children'][1]['name']  // subPathA2
echo $directories[0]['children'][1]['level'] // 1

To demonstrate, consider the following example:

function showDirectories($list, $parent = array())
{
    foreach ($list as $directory){
        $parent_name = count($parent) ? " parent: ({$parent['name']}" : '';
        $prefix = str_repeat('-', $directory['level']);
        echo "$prefix {$directory['name']} $parent_name <br/>";  // <-----------
        if(count($directory['children'])){
            // list the children directories
            showDirectories($directory['children'], $directory);
        }
    }
}

showDirectories($directories);

// pathA
// - subPathA1 (parent: pathA)
// -- subsubPathA11 (parent: subPathA1)
// - subPathA2 
// pathB
// pathC

Answered by Ricardo Canelas

Post is based on https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2524151/php-get-all-subdirectories-of-a-given-directory