Delete all files from a folder in PHP
Sometimes, we need to delete all files from a folder in PHP. So today we will explain to you how to delete files from a folder using php.
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Before we start, let’s assume that we have a directory structure like below and we are going to delete all the files from the uploads folder.
Different ways to use the glob() function to delete files
- Delete files with .css extension
- Delete files that start with ‘spec-’ name
- Delete all files
- Example
1. Delete files with .css extension
As we discussed, here we will use the glob() function to get a list of the file names from a folder which contains the .css extension.
delete-css-files.php
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | <?php // folder path to delete all files $path = "./uploads"; // list of css file names located inside the folder $files = glob($path.'/*.css'); // delete all the files from the list foreach($files as $file){ if(is_file($file)){ unlink($file); } } echo "Files deleted successfully."; exit; ?> |
In the above code, we used the is_file() function to check if a file exists or not. This will help us to filter only files not directories.
Also we used the unlink() function to delete the files from a folder.
That’s it to delete all .css files from a folder.
2. Delete files that start with ‘spec-’ name
Now let’s try to remove specific files from a folder that start with spec- name.
Check the following code to get specific files from a folder by matching a pattern.
1 2 | // list of file names located inside the folder that start with specific name $files = glob($path.'/spec-*'); |
We have to follow the same code as written in the first point. Let’s combine all codes together to make it work.
delete-specific-files.php
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | <?php // folder path to delete files $path = "./uploads"; // list of file names located inside the folder that start with ‘spec-’ name $files = glob($path.'/spec-*'); // delete specific files from the list foreach($files as $file){ if(is_file($file)){ unlink($file); } } echo "Files deleted successfully."; exit; ?> |
3. Delete all files
At last, we are going to delete all the files from a folder. So for that we will use glob($path.'/*') function to get all the files from a folder and then delete all the files.
Check the following code to delete all files.
delete-all-files.php
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 | <?php // folder path to delete all files $path = "./uploads"; // list of filenames located inside the folder $files = glob($path.'/*'); // delete all the files from the list foreach($files as $file){ if(is_file($file)){ unlink($file); } } echo "Files deleted successfully."; exit; ?> |
4. Example
Let’s combine all above codes together and create an example where we will delete all files from a folder.
index.php
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 | <!DOCTYPE html> <html> <head> <title> Delete files from a folder - Clue Mediator </title> </head> <body style="padding: 20px; font-family: arial;"> <h2> Delete files from a folder - <a href="https://www.cluemediator.com" target="_blank">Clue Mediator</a> </h2> <div style="line-height: 25px;"> <a href="./delete-css-files.php" title="Delete files with .css extension">Delete files with .css extension</a><br/> <a href="./delete-specific-files.php" title="Delete files that start with 'spec-' name">Delete files that start with 'spec-' name</a><br/> <a href="./delete-all-files.php" title="Delete all files">Delete all files</a> </div> </body> </html> |
Run the project and check the below output.
That’s it for today.
Thank you for reading. Happy Coding!
