Get all subdirectories of a given directory in PHP

This article demonstrates how to get all subdirectories of a given directory in PHP.

1. Using `glob()` function

You can easily list all files in a directory using glob() function. The glob() function takes a pattern and returns an array containing the pathnames matching that pattern. You can then filter out all subdirectories in the returned files using the array_filter() function with is_dir() as the callback. The is_dir() function returns true if the file is a directory, and false otherwise.

<?php

$path = '/path/to/directory';

$directories = array_filter(glob($path.'/*'), 'is_dir');

print_r($directories);

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The above implementation is a little verbose. A better option is to retrieve only directories with the glob() function. This can be done using the GLOB_ONLYDIR flag, which returns only directory entries matching the pattern.

<?php

$path = '/path/to/directory';

$directories = glob($path.'/*', GLOB_ONLYDIR);

print_r($directories);

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2. Using `DirectoryIterator` class

The DirectoryIterator class provides a simple interface for viewing the contents of filesystem directories. Following is a simple example demonstrating the usage of the DirectoryIterator class. The solution iterates over the contents of the directory using a directory iterator and then filters out all directories with the DirectoryIterator::isDir() function.

<?php

$path = '/path/to/directory';

$iterator = new DirectoryIterator($path);

foreach ($iterator as $fileinfo)

{

if ($fileinfo->isDir() && !$fileinfo->isDot()) {

echo $fileinfo->getFilename(), PHP_EOL;

}

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3. Using `RecursiveDirectoryIterator` class

Another option is to use the RecursiveDirectoryIterator class to recursively iterate over the filesystem directories. For example, the following solution will list the subdirectories of a directory using RecursiveIteratorIterator in combination with RecursiveDirectoryIterator. It uses the DirectoryIterator::isDir() function to determine if the current item is a directory.

<?php

$path = '/path/to/directory';

$iterator = new RecursiveIteratorIterator(new RecursiveDirectoryIterator($path));

foreach ($iterator as $file)

{

if ($file->isDir()) {

echo $file->getRealpath(), PHP_EOL;

}

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That’s all there is to getting all the subdirectories of a given directory in PHP.

Get all subdirectories of a given directory in PHP

1. Using glob() function

2. Using DirectoryIterator class

3. Using RecursiveDirectoryIterator class

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1. Using `glob()` function

2. Using `DirectoryIterator` class

3. Using `RecursiveDirectoryIterator` class