Learn how to select random file from directory using PHP

By admin|PHP

If you want to make a site where users can submit files, and then randomly view one by one on another page then, you can use the following function. Here, I have a directory called “uploads” where the files are submitted.

Here, you can use glob or opendir() to get all files in a directory, and then take a random element from that array. A function like this would do it for you:

function random_pic($dir = 'uploads')
{
    $files = glob($dir . '/*.*');
    $file = array_rand($files);
    return $files[$file];
}

NOTE: it is faster opendir() function than glob() function.