What is the Most Efficient Way to Filter Files by Extension in PHP?

Efficient Way to Filter Files by Extension in PHP

Querying a directory for a specific list of files based on extension can be a common task in PHP development. As mentioned in the question, using scandir() will retrieve every file in a directory, which can be inefficient if you only need certain files.

The recommended and most efficient way to filter files by extension in PHP is to utilize the glob() function. glob() allows you to specify a pattern to match the files you want to retrieve and returns an array of matched files. Here's an example usage:

<code class="php">$files = glob('/path/to/folder/*.txt');</code>

This code will populate the $files variable with a list of all files matching the *.txt pattern in the given path. The pattern syntax allows you to use wildcards like * to match any character sequence and ? to match a single character.

Using glob() provides several advantages:

• It's a built-in PHP function and doesn't require any additional libraries or extensions.
• It's highly efficient as it only scans the files matching the specified pattern instead of the entire directory.
• It supports various pattern syntax options, giving you flexibility in filtering files.

Therefore, glob() is the recommended approach for retrieving files from a directory filtered by a specific extension in PHP.

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