PHP array_diff() function - A handy use case learned

As I continue to learn PHP development, I'm sharing those concepts with readers here. This quick post covers a handy use of the PHP array_diff() function I learned about...

I recently used the PHP array_diff() function in some prototype scripts and wanted to share this specific use case example for others interested…

For seasoned PHP developers, this likely isn’t anything new or shiny as it is with me, so feel free to disregard my exuberance.

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PHP scandir() function and dotfiles

Typically when you use the scandir() function, there are a couple of dotfiles (. and ..) that are returned as part of the array of files in the target directory.

📝 Note: I am terming them dotfiles here. They may have an official name (that I do not know) so take this term loosely. Feel free to share with me the official name (if there is one). Maybe they represent the hidden files in a directory?

While working on CSV upload functionality, I wanted a way to filter out those 2 dotfiles from the array returned by scandir(), in order to work with just the CSV files.

PHP array_diff() function - removing the dotfiles

Here's what I came up with using array_diff()…

It is simplistic yet effective.

array_diff() syntax is as follows (from the official PHP documentation):

array_diff(array $array, array ...$arrays): array

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Below is simple code I use for the example:

$all_files = scandir('/opt/lampp/htdocs/writing_projects/files/');

foreach ($all_files as $file) {
	
	echo '<strong>'.$file.'</strong>'.'<br>';
}

Looping through the $all_files array, we can see there are 5 files total: 2 dotfiles and 3 CSV files:

We can remove the 2 dotfiles using array_diff() like this:

$non_dotfiles = array_diff($all_files, array('.', '..'))

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When looping through the $non_dotfiles array, all files are present with the exception of the 2 dotfiles:

foreach ($non_dotfiles as $file) {
	
	echo '<strong>'.$file.'</strong>'.'<br>';
}

I won’t lay claim this is the best and only way to remove the dotfiles from a returned scandir() array or that this is the only use for array_diff(). Just something I cobbled together that works I wanted to share.

Share with me other ways you have used array_diff() in your code, along with workarounds for the dotfiles in scandir() arrays…

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