Return Array from function

[rkolbe]

Well since no one helped me with my last post a while back (2 or 3 weeks ago)...I have little hope for help this time...but after spending time trying to figure this out, I have come to get help from you all.

<?php
// Directory to iterate over
$root_directory = "/home/user1/public_html/directory";

/* Folder to originate from, if left blank then will recurse through entire tree: */
$path_extension = "";

// The file name to look for
$check_file = "unitinfo.txt";

function recursive_dir($root, $path_ext = "", $check_ext = "", $new_path_ext = "") {
  $dh = opendir($root.$path_ext.$new_path_ext);
  while(false !== ($entry=readdir($dh))) {
    if($entry != "." && $entry != ".." && is_dir($root.$path_ext.$new_path_ext."/".$entry)) {
      $prev_path_ext = $new_path_ext;
      $new_path_ext .= "/".$entry;
      recursive_dir($root,$path_ext,$check_ext,$new_path_ext);
      //echo "Closing Path: ".$root.$path_ext.$new_path_ext."<br>\n";
      $new_path_ext = $prev_path_ext;
    }  

    elseif($entry != "." && $entry != ".." && eregi("($check_ext)$",$entry)) {

 $items[] = $root."/".$new_path_ext."/".$entry;

/ * This works for echoing the array in the function
foreach ($items as $key){

echo $key;

}

*/
return $items;
    }
  }
  closedir($dh);
}

$newList = recursive_dir($root_directory, $path_extension, $check_file);

for($i=0; $i < count($newList); $i++)
echo "$newList[$i]<br>";

?>

Some of this code was found online...some of it rewritten by me. I am just trying to have the code go into directories and find this file called unitinfo.txt, and bring back the full path to it including the file name...e.g. /some/dir/unitinfo.txt

I can echo the array from in the function no problem, but I need to return the array so I can throw it into another function/or another loop rather so I can manip the data/use it.

The above code does not work 🙁

Any help appreciated

[brandtj]

This was a good one. 😃

<?php

function find_file ($base, $file) {
	$open = opendir ($base);
	$found = false;
	$dirs = array ();

while (($f = readdir ($open)) != false) {
	if (is_dir ($base . $f) & $f != '.' && $f != '..') {
		$dirs[] = $f;
	}

	if (is_file ($base . $f) && $f == $file) {
		$found = true; break;
	}
}

$open = closedir ($open);

if ($found == false) {
	if (count ($dirs) > 0) {
		foreach ($dirs as $v) {
			if (($t = find_file ($base . $v . '/', $file)) != false) return $t;
		}
	} else {
		return false;
	}
} else {
	return $base . $file;
}
}

?>

[Weedpacket]

rkolbe wrote:

I can echo the array from in the function no problem, but I need to return the array so I can throw it into another function/or another loop rather so I can manip the data/use it.

But the function is already returning an array; the the loop that echoes it at the end isn't necessary for the function to work (and isn't even part of the function - it's just there as an illustration of the array's use).

So why not just drop the loop and use the array the function returns (which in the illustrative code is being stored in $newList)?

[Weedpacket]

Surely that could be simpler....

function recursive_dir($root, $check_ext="")
{
	chdir($root);

$allfiles = array_map('realpath', glob("*$check_ext"));
$subdirs = array_map('realpath', glob("*",GLOB_ONLYDIR));
foreach($subdirs as $subdir)
	$allfiles = array_merge($allfiles, recursive_dir($subdir, $check_ext));
return $allfiles;
}

$returned = recursive_dir('.','.txt');
print_r($returned);

[rkolbe]

Ok...I dont know what it is, but nothing is getting returned with these arrays...is there possibly a setting in PHP that might be stopping this?? I've rewritten the code a few times here...tried brandij and weedpacket's code...and its just not returning anything...hrmmmm...I mean, the code looks as if it should work...and from all the other code like this (arrays being returned from a function, yadda yadda...), it should work....suggestions?

[rkolbe]

Ok I got brandtj's code to work...just had to put a trailing slash on the directory name...but now I need to make it recursive for dirs.

[brandtj]

I like Weedpacket's code a lot better! 😃

However, if you do use mine, you might want to add something like this in the first few lines:

$base = str_replace ('\\', '/', $base);
if ($base{strlen ($base) - 1} != '/') $base .= '/';

just so you don't have that trailing slash problem.

[rkolbe]

Ok this is frustrating...again....I can't seem to get any of this to work right....

Ive been playing with not only my new code I just wrote up...but alos your code weedpacket...

This is my new code:

 <?php

function recursiveDir($dir) {
    $files = array();
    $path = @opendir($dir);
    while (false !== ($file = readdir($path))) {
        if(($file != ".") && ($file != "..")) {
            if(is_file($dir . "/" . $file)){
                $files[] = $dir . "/" . $file;
            } elseif(is_dir($dir . "/" . $file)) {
               $newDir = $dir . "/" . $file;
                recursiveDir($newDir);
            }
        }

}
return $files;
}

echo recursiveDir('/fah');

?>

At this point, Im just trying to throw all the files (a specific file more or less) into an array....why does this not return the items in an array!!???!!

[brandtj]

In your code, the script returns the first set of files it finds, but because it can only be returned once, it leaves everything else out.

Example, it goes through, finds the files in the directory, returns them, then continues searching other directories. But, it never returns its other findings.

You'll notice that in both of our versions of the code, the function always returns the function itself. With my code it is obvious, with Weedpacket's it's a bit hidden:

if (($t = find_file ($base . $v . '/', $file)) != false) return $t;

$allfiles = array_merge($allfiles, recursive_dir($subdir, $check_ext)); 
return $allfiles;

Hope this helps.

[rkolbe]

brandtj wrote:

In your code, the script returns the first set of files it finds, but because it can only be returned once, it leaves everything else out.

Example, it goes through, finds the files in the directory, returns them, then continues searching other directories. But, it never returns its other findings.

You'll notice that in both of our versions of the code, the function always returns the function itself. With my code it is obvious, with Weedpacket's it's a bit hidden:

if (($t = find_file ($base . $v . '/', $file)) != false) return $t;

$allfiles = array_merge($allfiles, recursive_dir($subdir, $check_ext)); 
return $allfiles;

Hope this helps.

I threw in some echos in the code and was able to see the whole directory structure with my code....It showed directory name, and the files listed in each directory, and so forth...

It should throw them into an array, but for some reason I can't get the array to pass outside of the function...I can parse the array inside the function and echo everything appropriately in the function, but not outside of it....

[brandtj]

It will echo properly, because it does continue to be run. But the values that you want--the arrays--are not actually returned to any variable.

function show_me_more ($d) {
   show_me_more ($d + 1);
   return $d;
}

echo show_me_more (5);

If you run that code, your document will say "5," but if you run this code:

function show_me_more ($d) {
   echo $d;

   show_me_more ($d + 1);
   return $d;
}

echo show_me_more (5);

you will see a crap load of numbers, because the function never ends.

[rkolbe]

ok...I understand a bit better now....I'll give weedpacket's code another whirl...I do however, get a permissions error from chdir....could/would dir(), readdir(), opendir() be supplimented here to gain the same effect? I can use open and readdir to read stuf from directories, but i dont know why chdir is giving me issues...

And I def appreciate your help...both of u 😉

[brandtj]

If you have permission errors, then that is that. I tried Weedpacket's code and it doesn't work for me either. 🙁

Here we go, new code altogether, haha.

function tree ($dir, &$ar = array ()) {
	$dir = str_replace ('\\', '/', $dir);
	if ($dir{strlen ($dir) - 1} != '/') $dir .= '/';

$open = opendir ($dir);

while (($file = readdir ($open)) !== false) {
	if ($file != '.' && $file != '..') {
		if (is_file ($dir . $file)) {
			$ar[] = $dir . $file;
		} elseif (is_dir ($dir . $file)) {
			tree ($dir . $file, $ar);
		}
	}
}

return $ar;
}

$array = tree ('c:/htdocs');
sort ($array);
print_r ($array);

How does that work?

[rkolbe]

Ok I got my code to work...figured out how to get the array stuff to work here using array_merge 😉 Thanks brandtj for pointing that stuff out to me...this function/code I wrote up will go through all of the directories it can from the starting point you define...I will probably rewrite it to allow a user to specify how deep they want to go...but currently this returns the full path of the things in a directory...enjoy and thanks a lot guys. I still have a lot to write up here since this is only half of my project 😉

 <?php

function recursiveDir($dir) {

$files = array();
    if($handle = @opendir($dir)) {
        while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
            if(($file != ".") && ($file != "..")) {
                if(is_dir($dir . "/" . $file)){
                    $files = array_merge($files, recursiveDir($dir . "/" . $file));
                    $file = $dir . "/" . $file;
                    $files[] = preg_replace("/\/\//si", "/", $file);
                } else {
                    $file = $dir . "/" . $file;
                    $files[] = preg_replace("/\/\//si", "/", $file);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return $files;
}

$files = recursiveDir('/fah');
foreach ($files as $file) {
    echo $file . "<br>\n";
}

?>