php generate random image from a directory

Question

I have to generate random image from a directory. I know which is simple like,

   $dire=\"images/\";
   $images = glob($dire. \'*.{jpg,jpeg,png,gif}\', GLOB_         


        

Answer 1

One alternative to array_rand is shuffle:

$dire="images/";
$images = glob($dire. '*.{jpg,jpeg,png,gif}', GLOB_BRACE);
shuffle($images);

And then to display the next random image:

$randomImage=array_pop($images);

When the array is empty you call the initialization code again. So putting it together:

$images=array()  //Initialize once at top of script
$dire="images/";
...
if(count($images)==0){
  $images = glob($dire. '*.{jpg,jpeg,png,gif}', GLOB_BRACE);
  shuffle($images);
  }
$randomImage=array_pop($images);

(I deliberately repeated the glob() so that any new images get discovered on the second iteration.)

P.S. I'm assuming you understand that, by default, PHP is stateless. If this is supposed to give each user a different image each time they visit a page (e.g. a rotating banner ad), then the code is almost the same, but move the $images array into $_SESSION.