PHP code to check if a directory is empty

Posted in PHP
January 14, 2009

While dealing with files and directories in PHP you will most likely at some point want to check if a folder/directory is empty. To do this, you need to write a script that does the check. There are two ways of doing this. The first is supported in PHP 4 and 5 only and the second will only work if you are running PHP 5 on your server. Here they are:

Method 1:

This code works with PHP 4 and PHP 5.

// Open directory and create an object
// The dir() function creates the object
$directory = dir('path_to_directory');

// Loop while the read method goes through each and
// every file
while ((FALSE !== ($item = $directory->read())) && ( ! isset($directory_not_empty)))
{
	// If an item is not "." and "..", then something
	// exists in the directory and it is not empty
	if ($item != '.' && $item != '..')
	{
		$directory_not_empty = TRUE;
	}
}

// Close the directory
$directory->close();

Method 2:

Although the code below is a lot neater and lighter, it will only work with PHP 5.


// Scans the path for directories and if there are more than 2
// directories i.e. "." and ".." then the directory is not empty
if ( ($files = @scandir('path_to_directory') && (count($files) > 2) )
{
	$directory_not_empty = TRUE;
}

And there you have it. Two simple ways of checking if a directory is empty. Let me know if you found this useful in the comment block below.

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11 comments
  • http://www.neurofuzzy.net Geoff

    In Method 1, I think you mean:

    if ($item != ‘.’ && $item != ‘..’)

  • http://iarematt.com Matt

    Hey Geoff,

    Thanks for the comment.

    EDIT: You are correct, I have changed the code.

  • Andy P

    Method 1:

    No, Geoff is right – think about it…

    if the filename is not ‘.’ AND not ‘..’ then it MUST be a file or directory (i.e. not the current dir or parent dir)

    $item can’t be equal to ‘.’ and ‘..’ at the same time, so ($item != ‘.’ || $item != ‘..’) will ALWAYS evaluate to TRUE!

    Also you need to set
    $directory_empty = TRUE;
    at the beginning, otherwise $directory_empty will remain unset and therefore always == FALSE

  • http://hogerheijde.net Matthias Hogerheijde

    Method 1 is a bit inefficient:

    When you found 1 file or directory you can stop looping, you will loop trough the entire directory for all files in it. Won’t be a problem with a small amount, but still. I would suggest something like:

    $directory_empty = true;
    $directory = dir(‘path_to_directory’);
    while ($empty && FALSE !== ($item = $directory->read())) {
    if ($item != ‘.’ && $item != ‘..’) {
    $directory_empty = false;
    }
    }

    Furthermore, you forgot to declare $directory_empty and initialize it to true, both your methods will always result in a filled directory

  • http://hogerheijde.net Matthias Hogerheijde

    indentation doesn’t seem to take…

    and i wrote a mistake myself: it should be
    while ($directory_empty [...]

  • http://iarematt.com Matt

    I have updated the code in the above post to a more comprehensive example.

  • http://moestaverne.com Thomas

    Hi,

    i recommend the following:

    public static function isEmptyFolder($folder) {
    if (!($handle = @opendir($folder))) {
    throw new Exception(sprintf(‘could not read folder [%s]‘, $folder));
    }
    while (($file = readdir($handle)) !== false) {
    if ($file == ‘.’ || $file == ‘..’) continue;
    return false;
    }
    return true;
    }

  • http://iamNOTmatt.com Hielo

    function isEmpty($path)
    {
    $d=glob($path.’/*’);
    return empty($d);
    }

  • Wolf

    I like method 2. Short, sweet, and clear to the reader. Its missing a closing parentheses after scandir($path) though.

  • http://www.pdvictor.com Peter Drinnan

    I didn’t know there was a way to do it this way in PHP 5. Thanks buckets!

  • ahsan

    How about this:
    $dir = “some_directory”;
    if(!file_exists(glob($dir.”*/*”))){
    echo $dir. ” is empty!”;
    }

    Hope it helps!