Using PHP glob() Function for File and Directory Searching

The PHP glob() function is used to find files or directories; it is a powerful file‑handling function that returns paths matching a specified pattern.

Syntax of glob() function:

<code>glob(pattern, flags)</code>

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

Usage of glob() function

Example 1: Find all files in a specified directory

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

This code searches the directory /var/www/html for all files and prints their paths. The example uses a direct directory path without a wildcard.

Example 2: Match files with a specific extension

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

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

Example 3: Recursively find all files in a directory

<code>function getAllFiles($dir) {
    $files = glob($dir . '/*');
    foreach ($files as $file) {
        if (is_dir($file)) {
            getAllFiles($file);
        } else {
            echo $file . '&lt;br&gt;';
        }
    }
}

getAllFiles('/var/www/html');</code>

This recursive function retrieves all files and sub‑directories under the given directory, calling getAllFiles() on each sub‑directory to continue the search.

Example 4: Find all directories in a specified path

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

This code searches /var/www/html for all sub‑directories and prints their paths. By setting the flags parameter to GLOB_ONLYDIR , only directories are matched.

The glob() function in PHP is a versatile tool for locating files or directories based on patterns, offering flexibility for various file‑handling and directory‑traversal tasks.