Select random files out of a directory

[howa]

for example, there are 10K files in the directory,

given that i don't know if files name, is it possible to fetch a file
randomly?

thanks.

[Hendri Kurniawan]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

Yes...
See opendir, readdir, rand
And get creative

Hendri Kurniawan


howa wrote:

for example, there are 10K files in the directory,
>
given that i don't know if files name, is it possible to fetch a file
randomly?
>
thanks.
>

[howa]

Re: Select random files out of a directory


Hendri Kurniawan ¼g¹D¡G

Yes...
See opendir, readdir, rand
And get creative
>
Hendri Kurniawan
>
>
howa wrote:

for example, there are 10K files in the directory,

given that i don't know if files name, is it possible to fetch a file
randomly?

thanks.

the problem is:

there are too many files in the folder, e.g. over 10K or more, i don't
want to list it

but i know that it must contains 10K files, so it is possible to get ,
say 1020th file under this folder?

[Skeleton Man]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

>the problem is:

>there are too many files in the folder, e.g. over 10K or more, i don't
>want to list it
>but i know that it must contains 10K files, so it is possible to get ,
>say 1020th file under this folder?

Use scandir() to return an array of filenames and array_rand() to pick a
random entry from that list.. (see the manual for details)

Chris

[Hendri Kurniawan]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

Unless other people knows any other methods.

for($i = 0; $i < 1024; $i++) $fileName = readdir($dirHan dler);
print $fileName;

Now if you know the file names, that is another matter.

Hendri Kurniawan

howa wrote:

Hendri Kurniawan ¼g¹D¡G
>

>Yes...
>See opendir, readdir, rand
>And get creative
>>
>Hendri Kurniawan
>>
>>
>howa wrote:

>>for example, there are 10K files in the directory,
>>>
>>given that i don't know if files name, is it possible to fetch a file
>>randomly?
>>>
>>thanks.
>>>

>
the problem is:
>
there are too many files in the folder, e.g. over 10K or more, i don't
want to list it
>
but i know that it must contains 10K files, so it is possible to get ,
say 1020th file under this folder?
>

[Hendri Kurniawan]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

BTW scandir is not available prior to PHP5
Just a note

Hendri Kurniawan

Skeleton Man wrote:

>the problem is:
>there are too many files in the folder, e.g. over 10K or more, i don't
>want to list it
>but i know that it must contains 10K files, so it is possible to get ,
>say 1020th file under this folder?

>
Use scandir() to return an array of filenames and array_rand() to pick a
random entry from that list.. (see the manual for details)
>
Chris
>
>

[Martin Mandl - m2m tech support]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

If you have access to system commands you could try the following:

1) Get the number of files using something like: ls | wc
2) Use your random generator
3) Now pick your line e.g. for file # 123: ls | head -123 | tail -1

Have fun


howa wrote:

for example, there are 10K files in the directory,
>
given that i don't know if files name, is it possible to fetch a file
randomly?
>
thanks.

[Curtis]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

$dir = './';
$files = array();
$file = '';
if ( is_dir($dir) ) {
if ( $d = opendir($dir) ) {
while ( ($file = readdir($d)) !== false ) {
if ( !is_dir($file) ) $files[] = $file;
}
}
}

// specify an int for the optional 2nd arg if you
// need more than one random file
$randomKeys = array_rand($fil es);
$randomFile = $files[$randomKeys[0]];

$files holds an array of all files in the directory specified in the
$dir variable. This can take the place of scandir if you're running on
a version of PHP prior to 5.x.

On Jan 4, 9:30 pm, Hendri Kurniawan <ask...@email.c omwrote:

BTW scandir is not available prior to PHP5
Just a note
>
Hendri Kurniawan
>
Skeleton Man wrote:

the problem is:
there are too many files in the folder, e.g. over 10K or more, i don't
want to list it
but i know that it must contains 10K files, so it is possible to get ,
say 1020th file under this folder?

>

Use scandir() to return an array of filenames and array_rand() to pick a
random entry from that list.. (see the manual for details)

>

Chris

[howa]

Re: Select random files out of a directory


Martin Mandl - m2m tech support ¼g¹D¡G

If you have access to system commands you could try the following:
>
1) Get the number of files using something like: ls | wc
2) Use your random generator
3) Now pick your line e.g. for file # 123: ls | head -123 | tail -1
>
Have fun
>
>
howa wrote:

for example, there are 10K files in the directory,

given that i don't know if files name, is it possible to fetch a file
randomly?

thanks.

thanks....all examples should work for me...but a little bit slow as my
folder contains more than 10K files....thanks anyway

[Martin Mandl - m2m tech support]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

Another idea: Why don't you load the names of your files into a
database. If you do this with an automatic task, it does not matter how
long it takes. ... and getting a random result form the database should
not take that long ...

howa wrote:

thanks....all examples should work for me...but a little bit slow as my
folder contains more than 10K files....thanks anyway

[Stefan Rybacki]

Re: Select random files out of a directory

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Hash: SHA1

Curtis schrieb:

$dir = './';
$files = array();
$file = '';
if ( is_dir($dir) ) {
if ( $d = opendir($dir) ) {
while ( ($file = readdir($d)) !== false ) {
if ( !is_dir($file) ) $files[] = $file;
}
}
}
>
// specify an int for the optional 2nd arg if you
// need more than one random file
$randomKeys = array_rand($fil es);
$randomFile = $files[$randomKeys[0]];
>
>

Without the memory overhead selecting one random file could in addition
look like this then:

$dir = './';
$file = '';
mt_srand(time() );
$probability=mt _getrandmax()/10000;
if ( is_dir($dir) ) {
if ( $d = opendir($dir) ) {
while ( ($file = readdir($d)) !== false ) {
if ( !is_dir($file) ) {
if (mt_rand()<$pro bability) break;
}
}
}
}

I know it's far from perfect and it's not equally distributed but might
save some execution time if you accidently select the second file ;) as
well as you don't have the memory overhead and it takes at most as long
as the original script. Important here is the probability variable,
which should be adjusted with an estimated file count of the desired folder.

Stefan
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