Best method for db + @readdir() at the same time

[ppowell]

I am tasked with a rather strange task: I need to search through a directory (and subsequent subdirectories) of images; for each image that is found I need to find a corresponding db entry in a single table.

Is there an efficient means of doing this, considering that the app will possibly handle several hundred images (avg size 50 - 75K) at a time? I sense a horrific performance lag while doing this.

Thanx
Phil

[mmilano]

i don't think file size is really an issue as i believe the read directory functions only look at names and don't load files.

here is something that would work for one directory, .. but you may have to do a little research to have this work recursively through the underlying directories:

<?
$handle=opendir("path/to/directory");

// read and loop through directory
while ($each = readdir($handle))
{
  // test if it is a directory
  if(!is_dir($each))
  {
    if( strstr($each,".jpg") || strstr($each,".gif") )
    // database logic here
  }
}
?>

[ppowell]

problem with that approach would be that you have the potential of hitting the database hundreds of times to check if the image file name corresponds to an existing db record. That could be quite expensive.

And the idea of comparing an array of file names with an array of returned results from a query = OUCH!

What comparing to a flat file generated by a single-dump from a db table be better you think?

Thanx
Phil