Generate nested list from filenames

Question

I have a directory full of files with the naming convention of yyyymm.xml I need to generate a list like this:

<ul>
 <li>2010
  <ul>
   <li>Dec</li>
   <li>Nov</li>
   ...
   <li>Feb</li>
   <li>Jan</li>
  </ul>
 </li>
 <li>2009
  <ul>
   <li>Dec</li>
    ...etc.
  </ul>
 </li>
</ul>

My most recent attempt:

<?php
$tempYear = 0;
date_default_timezone_set('Australia/Melbourne');
if ($handle = opendir('news')) {
   // Open the news dir
    echo "<p>News archive</p>";
    echo "<ul>";
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
        if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {
            $fileDate = basename($file, ".xml");
            $fileDate = $fileDate . "01";
            // Strip the .xml extention from the filename
            $currYear = date("Y", strtotime($fileDate));
            $currMonth = date("F");
            $archMonth = date("F", strtotime($fileDate));
            //echo "<li>$archMonth</li>";
            if ($currYear != $tempYear){
                echo "<li>$currYear";
                $tempYear = $currYear;
            }else{
                echo "<ul>";
                while ($currMonth != $archMonth){
                    echo "<li>$archMonth</li>";
                }
                echo "</ul>";
                echo "</li>";
            }
        }
    }
    echo "</ul>";
    closedir($handle);
}                   
?>

jwueller · Accepted Answer · 2010-12-06T12:41:09.097

You could use something like this to split the filenames up:

$list = array();

foreach ($files as $filename) {
    $year = intval(substr($filename, 0, 4));
    $month = intval(substr($filename, 3, 2));

    if (!is_array($list[$year])) {
        $list[$year] = array();
    }

    $list[$year][] = $month;
}

Then you can list them like you need them:

if (!empty($list)) {
    echo '<ul>';

    foreach ($list as $year => $months) {
        echo '<li>'.$year;

        if (!empty($months)) {
            echo '<ul>';

            foreach ($months as $month) {
                // you can add some magic here to display
                // the month as text instead of a number.
                echo '<li>'.$month.'</li>';
            }

            echo '</ul>';
        }

        echo '</li>';
    }

    echo '</ul>';
}

@StefWill: See my update. This should give you a hint of how to loop through that structure. — jwueller, Dec 06 '10 at 12:40
Thanks heaps to everyone for the assistance. I now have a better understanding of arrays. — StefWill, Dec 08 '10 at 03:37

score 0 · Answer 2 · edited May 23 '17 at 10:24

Which part were you struggling on?

Essentially, you want to get a list of the files, loop over them and parse them into year and month, then you can stuff them in an array something like this:

$array[year][] = month;

This way you have an array which contains a list of years, each containing an array of months. Then go over that data structure to output your HTML.

I hope you don't expect people to just do your work for you. Work on this then when you encounter a specific problem, ask for help.

Edit: Looping the above structure

You've essentially got an array of arrays if you do as I've hinted at above. Your array structure would look like this:

$array['2010'] = array('jan','mar','sep');
$array['2009'] = array('feb','sep','oct');

To loop over this array

foreach($array as $key => $months) {
    echo "year: $key\n";
    foreach($months as $month) {
         echo "$month\n";
    }
}

Which would output:

2010
jan
mar
sep
2009
feb
sep
oct

Sprinkle in HTML as needed.

The looping. Can't work out how to eco the year then all the months then the next year. — StefWill, Dec 06 '10 at 12:25
No not expecting a solid solution just a prod in the right direction :) — StefWill, Dec 06 '10 at 12:29

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Dec 06 '10 at 12:47

<?php
$dir = '.';

/**
 * find the files and store them in array
 **/
if(is_dir($dir)) {
  if($dh = opendir($dir)) {
    $menutree = array();

    while(($file = readdir($dh)) !== false) {
      // check if filename is correct
      if(strlen($file) == 10 && strtolower(substr($file, -3)) == 'xml') {
        $menuTree[substr($file, 0, 4)][substr($file, 4, 2)] = $file;
      }
    }

    closedir($dh);
  }
}

/**
 * build the tree
 **/
if(is_array($menuTree) && count($menuTree) > 0) {
  // sort
  asort($menuTree);

  foreach($menuTree as $year => $months) {
    ksort($menuTree[$year]);
  }

  // define months
  $monthsWords = array(
    'Jan',
    'Feb',
    'Mar',
    'Apr',
    'May',
    'Jun',
    'Jul',
    'Sep',
    'Oct',
    'Nov',
    'Dec'
  );

  // echo html
  echo('<ul>' . "\n");

  foreach($menuTree as $year => $months) {
    echo("\t" . '<li>' . $year . "\n");
    echo("\t\t" . '<ul>' . "\n");

    foreach($months as $month => $filename) {
      echo("\t\t\t" . '<li>' . $monthsWords[(int) $month - 1] . '</li>' . "\n");
    }

    echo("\t\t" . '</ul>' . "\n");
    echo("\t" . '</li>'); 
  }

  echo('</ul>' . "\n");
}
?>

Quick and dirty... ;-). There are a lot of things that have to be improved...
On base of that you should be able to build what you need.

Generate nested list from filenames

3 Answers3

Edit: Looping the above structure