Question

is_dir() according to the php manual returns true if passed a string that refers to a folder.
It’s returning false — despite being passed an array of valid folder names — this is probably something simple but I’m beating myself up over not finding it.

Here is the code:

define('TEST_SUBFOLDERS_FILES_PATH', 'C:/xampp/htdocs/theProj/mainSubdir/');

$currentFolder = ' ';
$rootOfmainSubdir = TEST_SUBFOLDERS_FILES_PATH';
$theArrayOfDirsAndFilesInmainSubdir;

// fill an array that contains all files and folders under the /mainSubdir folder
// using php's 'scandir()'
if( ($theArrayOfDirsAndFilesInmainSubdir = scandir($rootOfmainSubdir )) != FALSE )
{
  $numArrayEntries = count($theArrayOfDirsAndFilesInmainSubdir);
  echo "<br><br>The number of folders/files found is:  " . $numArrayEntries;


  // now do the triage on subfolders under /mainSubdir  versus files
  for($i = 0; $i < $numArrayEntries; $i++)
  {
    echo "<br><br>Current array element is:  " 
            . $theArrayOfDirsAndFilesInmainSubdir[$i]
            . "  and is_dir() on this element returns --> "
            . var_dump( is_dir($theArrayOfDirsAndFilesInmainSubdir[$i]) );  
    // rest of code

Here is what I see on the output for almost all the folders:

Current array element is: testFolderN and is_dir() on this element returns -->

boolean false

OR I see:

Current array element is: . and is_dir() on this element returns -->

boolean true

AND:

Current array element is: .. and is_dir() on this element returns -->

boolean true

I’m missing something really dumb here but sheesh. It seems that is_dir() is correctly returning TRUE only for the current folder “.” and the parent folder “..”

If there is a nuance I’m missing in the use of is_dir() I’m not seeing it.

Help is appreciated — all I’m going to do in the code is to make a list of the current subfolders under the TEST_SUBFOLDERS_FILES_PATH if I can get is_dir() to return TRUE not only for “.” and “..” but also the other ‘testFolderN’ subfolders.

By the way — there is a total of 5 subfolders, and one file in the directory, so the display of the count above is:

The number of folders/files found is: 8

Answer 1

You scan the $rootOfmainSubdir, but you test for is_dir()ness in your current directory. You can either prepend the root and directory separator before checking, or chdir() in there. Note, that your current directory also has . and .. entries.