PHP readdir() not returning files in order

Question

I have the below code that I run to list files within a directory. I would like to sort the output by some way. Preferably filename or by date of upload. Is this even possible?

<?php
  if ($handle = opendir('./xyz')) {
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
        if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {
          $thelist .= '<a href="./abc/xyz/'.$file.'">'.$file.'</a><br>';
        }
    }
  closedir($handle);
  }
?>
<h1>List of files:</h1>
<ul><?php echo $thelist; ?></ul>

EDIT: New code with update.

<?php
array_multisort(array_map('filectime', $files = glob('./xyz/*.*')), SORT_DEC, $files);
?>

<h1>List of files:</h1>
<ul><?php foreach($files as $file) {
    echo '<a href="./abc/'.$file.'">'.$file.'</a><br>';
}
?></ul>

Possible duplicate of [PHP readdir() not returning files in alphabetical order](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/541510/php-readdir-not-returning-files-in-alphabetical-order) — CBroe, Apr 04 '18 at 17:38

AbraCadaver · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-04T21:41:32.620

0

You can't sort with readdir which reads them in the order that they are stored in the file system. You can read them into an array and sort that. array_multisort works well and you can replace filectime with other functions:

array_multisort(array_map('filectime', $files = glob('./xyz/*.*')),
                SORT_ASC, $files);

This gets all files into an array $files, maps to filectime to get the time, sorts on that and then sorts the $files array on that.
For alphabetical just use sort or rsort after glob.

Once you have the sorted array just loop it and display or build your string as you were:

foreach($files as $file) {
    echo '<a href="./abc/xyz/'.$file.'">'.basename($file).'</a><br>';
}

edited Apr 04 '18 at 21:41

answered Apr 04 '18 at 17:43

AbraCadaver

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Thank you for your quick response. How/where would I implement this into my code then? – Devon Fisher Apr 04 '18 at 20:22
Edited. Build the array and then loop thru to display. – AbraCadaver Apr 04 '18 at 20:24
Great! Thanks, that works almost perfect. The only problem now is that it is displaying "./xyz/filename". Any way to have it show just the filename but still have the correct link? – Devon Fisher Apr 04 '18 at 20:58
Added `basename` – AbraCadaver Apr 04 '18 at 21:41

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 04 '18 at 17:41

-1

have you tried use a kind of tranformation of the names in a Array, and after this tried to sorting ?...See this : is a basic sorting function

<?php $cars = array("Volvo", "BMW", "Toyota"); sort($cars); ?>

answered Apr 04 '18 at 17:41

Sóstenes Apollo

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PHP readdir() not returning files in order

2 Answers2