Feature: walker function: walker(".") returns an object model of the entire directory / an expansive alternative for scandir()

[patrpatl]

Description

Here is my current code for demonstrating the purpose. The dev community shall decide on the final verdict.

<?php
    function walker($directory) {
        foreach (scandir($directory) as $item) {
            if ($item == '.' || $item == '..') continue;
            if ($directory == "." && ($item == "api.php" || $item == 'index.html')) continue;
            $dl[$item] = [
                "item_type" => is_dir("{$directory}/{$item}") ? "folder" : "file",
                "child" => walker("{$directory}/{$item}"),
            ];
        }
        return $dl;
    }
?>

Here's how I'm currently using it :) with some html css and js

How it looks like when I use echo and json_encode.

I'll be making a pull request if it got a lot of good impressions.

[devnexen]

Hi @patrpatl I m personally not too sure of the value of this but feel free to expand on that on the internal mailing list.

[patrpatl]

@devnexen the function returns a file tree that can be useful in a handful of file handling scenarios. Scandir enumerates the contents of a directory but walker enumerates every file and folder under a root making it more convenient for programmers to do file search operations. I'm planning to add file properties as well such as file sizes and date of file last modified. The function is recursive and it's better to be programmed in c like our dear friend scandir() for better performance on larger indexes. Does it sound cool?

[devnexen]

what I implied is more that I doubt it has its place in core PHP.

[devnexen]

also I almost forgot, some of these can be covered with RecursiveDirectoryIterator and glob for example.

[devnexen]

Does it sound cool?

if you plan to return the full tree array, especially with modern inode capacity, I m not sure you ll feel the same way ... I ll let other people say what they think. Cheers !