List a Directory's Contents Using PHP

To list the content of a directory you just need to use the combination of opendir() and readdir() functions.

// directory path can be either absolute or relative

$dirPath = '.';

// open the specified directory and check if it's opened successfully 

if ($handle = opendir($dirPath)) {

   // keep reading the directory entries 'til the end 

   while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {

      // just skip the reference to current and parent directory 

      if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {

         if (is_dir("$dirPath/$file")) {

            // found a directory, do something with it? 

            echo "[$file]<br>";

         } else {

            // found an ordinary file 

            echo "$file<br>";

         }

      }

   }

   // ALWAYS remember to close what you opened 

   closedir($handle);

}

When you list the files surely you need to know which of these files are actually a sub-directory. Using the is_dir()function you can test if the files is really a directory or not. What you want to do later with that directory is up to you. On the code above directories are simply printed in a square brackets to differentiate them with ordinary files