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How to delete a subfolder under a folder using php

Mar 24, 2023 pm 02:54 PM
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If you are a PHP developer, you may encounter the need to delete a folder under a folder. Although PHP provides built-in functions for deleting files and folders, it does not provide a function for deleting folders individually. In this article, we will show you how to delete a subfolder under a folder using PHP.

Deleting subfolders under a folder is a relatively common operation, especially when you need to clean up old and useless files. In PHP, deleting a folder can be achieved by using the rmdir() function. This function accepts a path to a folder as a parameter and attempts to delete it. But it can only delete an empty folder, not non-empty folders.

The operation of deleting non-empty folders in PHP is relatively complicated. Because you need to delete all files and subfolders under the folder first, and make sure that no errors occur before the folder can be deleted successfully. Fortunately, PHP provides a function called recursiveDirectoryDelete(), which can help us easily delete all files and subfolders under the folder. Its implementation process is as follows:

function recursiveDirectoryDelete($directory){
    if(!is_dir($directory)){
        throw new InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('%s is not a directory', $directory));
    }

    $files = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(
        new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($directory, RecursiveDirectoryIterator::SKIP_DOTS),
        RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST
    );

    foreach($files as $file) {
        if ($file->isDir()){
            rmdir($file->getRealPath());
        } else {
            unlink($file->getRealPath());
        }
    }

    rmdir($directory);
    return true;
}

In the above code, we first check whether the parameter passed in is a directory. If it is not a directory, an InvalidArgument Exception is thrown.

Next, we use the RecursiveDirectoryIterator class and the RecursiveIteratorIterator class to iterate through all subdirectories and files in the directory. Here we also pass the SKIP_DOTS constant to skip the . and .. directories to avoid infinite loops

Then, we check the current The type of file or directory and removes itself using the rmdir() or unlink() function. Finally, we use the rmdir() function to delete the folder.

With the above code, we can delete all files and subfolders under a folder by calling the recursiveDirectoryDelete() function.

But we have not yet realized our needs: how to delete a subfolder under the folder.

In PHP, when you need to delete a subfolder under a folder, you can first delete the subfolder by calling the recursiveDirectoryDelete() function, and then delete its parent folder.

function deleteSubdirectory($parentDirectory, $subDirectory)
{
    $subDirectoryPath = sprintf('%s/%s', $parentDirectory, $subDirectory);
    if (is_dir($subDirectoryPath)) {
        recursiveDirectoryDelete($subDirectoryPath);
        return true;
    }
    throw new InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('%s is not a directory under %s', $subDirectory, $parentDirectory)); 
}

In the above code, we first construct the full path of the subfolder, and then check whether it is a directory. If so, call the recursiveDirectoryDelete() function to delete it. Otherwise, an exception will be thrown.

Now we have completed how to delete a subfolder under a folder. Combining the above two functions, we can easily implement this function in PHP. Here is a complete example:

function recursiveDirectoryDelete($directory){
    if(!is_dir($directory)){
        throw new InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('%s is not a directory', $directory));
    }

    $files = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(
        new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($directory, RecursiveDirectoryIterator::SKIP_DOTS),
        RecursiveIteratorIterator::CHILD_FIRST
    );

    foreach($files as $file) {
        if ($file->isDir()){
            rmdir($file->getRealPath());
        } else {
            unlink($file->getRealPath());
        }
    }

    rmdir($directory);
    return true;
}

function deleteSubdirectory($parentDirectory, $subDirectory)
{
    $subDirectoryPath = sprintf('%s/%s', $parentDirectory, $subDirectory);
    if (is_dir($subDirectoryPath)) {
        recursiveDirectoryDelete($subDirectoryPath);
        return true;
    }
    throw new InvalidArgumentException(sprintf('%s is not a directory under %s', $subDirectory, $parentDirectory)); 
}

$parentDirectory = '/path/to/directory';
$subDirectory = 'subdirectory';

deleteSubdirectory($parentDirectory, $subDirectory);

In the above example, we first define the two functions recursiveDirectoryDelete() and deleteSubdirectory(), and then call deleteSubdirectory() Function to delete the specified subfolder. You just need to replace $parentDirectory and $subDirectory with your own paths and subfolder names.

Summary:

Deleting a subfolder under a folder is a relatively common operation in PHP. We can delete all files and subfolders by calling the recursiveDirectoryDelete() function, and use the deleteSubdirectory() function to delete the specified subfolder. Hope this article can help you.

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