List and Sort Files with PHP DirectoryIterator

Question

I\'m using DirectoryIterator to generate a linked-list of PDF files. (There\'s also some code to break up the file name to make the list more user friendly.) I\'d like to so

Answer 1

Use scandir instead of DirectoryIterator to get a sorted list of files:

$path = "../images/";

foreach (scandir($path) as $file){

    if($file[0] == '.'){continue;}//hidden file

    if( is_file($path.$file) ){

    }else if( is_dir($path.$file) ){

    }
}

scandir is case sensitive. For case insensitive sorting, see this answer: How do you scan the directory case insensitive?

Answer 2

Placing your valid files into an array with various columns you can sort by is probably the best bet, an associate one at that too.

I used asort() "Sort an array and maintain index association" with I think best fits your requirements.

if (is_dir($path)) 
{
    $FoundFiles = [];

    foreach (new DirectoryIterator($path) as $file) 
    {

       if ($file->isDot())
       {
          continue;
       }
    
       $fileName = $file->getFilename();

       $pieces    = explode('.', $fileName);
       $date      = explode('-', $pieces[2]);
                
       $filetypes = [ "pdf", "PDF" ];
       $filetype  = pathinfo( $file, PATHINFO_EXTENSION );

       if ( in_array( strtolower( $filetype ), $filetypes )) 
       {
          /** 
           *  Place into an Array
          **/
          $foundFiles[] = array( 
              "fileName" => $fileName,
              "date"     => $date
          );       
       }
    }
 }

Before Sorting

print_r( $foundFiles );

Array
(
   [0] => Array
       (
            [fileName] => readme.pdf
            [date] => 22/01/23
       )

   [1] => Array
       (
            [fileName] => zibra.pdf
            [date] => 22/01/53
       )

    [2] => Array
       (
            [fileName] => animate.pdf
            [date] => 22/01/53
       ) 
)
   

        

After Sorting asort()

/** 
 *   Sort the Array by FileName (The first key)
 *   We'll be using asort()
**/ 
asort( $foundFiles );

/** 
 *   After Sorting 
**/ 
print_r( $foundFiles );

Array
(
    [2] => Array
        (
            [fileName] => animate.pdf
            [date] => 22/01/53
        )

    [0] => Array
        (
            [fileName] => readme.pdf
            [date] => 22/01/23
        )

    [1] => Array
        (
            [fileName] => zibra.pdf
            [date] => 22/01/53
        )
 )

Then for printing with HTML after the function completes - Your code did it whilst the code was in a loop, which meant you couldn't sort it after it's already been printed:

<ul>
   <?php foreach( $foundFiles as $file ): ?>
      <li>File: <?php echo $file["fileName"] ?> - Date Uploaded: <?php echo $file["date"]; ?></li>
   <?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>