Sort alphabetically with opendir()

Question

I'm quite new to PHP so I'm still learning the very basics, however I'm trying to create an image gallery.

After countless Google searches later, I found a PHP script that does what I want it to do, and after looking at the code and manipulating it slightly it was working perfectly with my site; except that the images were not in alphabetical order.

This is the code

$max_width = 100;
$max_height = 100;
$imagedir = 'gifs/animals/'; //Remember trailing slash


function getPictureType($ext) {
    if ( preg_match('/jpg|jpeg/i', $ext) ) {
        return 'jpg';
    } else if ( preg_match('/png/i', $ext) ) {
        return 'png';
    } else if ( preg_match('/gif/i', $ext) ) {
        return 'gif';
    } else {
        return '';
    }
}

function getPictures() {
    global $max_width, $max_height, $imagedir;
    if ( $handle = opendir($imagedir) ) {
        $lightbox = rand();
        echo '<ul id="pictures">';
        while ( ($file = readdir($handle)) !== false ) {
            if ( !is_dir($file) ) {
                $split = explode($imagedir, $file); 
                $ext = $split[count($split) - 1];
                if ( ($type = getPictureType($ext)) == '' ) {
                    continue;
                }

                $name = substr($file, 0, -4);
                $title = str_replace("_"," ",$name);
                echo '<li><a href="'.$name.'">';
                echo '<img src="thumbs/'.$file.'" class="pictures" alt="'.$file.'" />';
                echo '</a>';
                echo ''.$title.'';
                echo '</li>';
            }
        }
        echo '</ul>';

    }
}

I've used the scandir() function which works in sorting them alphabetically, however I was left with an array. I then used the implode function to join the array together, however after that I was stuck with what to do.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers.

Answer 1

What's wrong with the arrays? Also it would be better if you use pathinfo to obtain the filename and the extension.

$max_width = 100;
$max_height = 100;
$imagedir = 'gifs/animals/'; //Remember trailing slash


function getPictureType($ext) {
    if ( preg_match('/jpg|jpeg/i', $ext) ) {
        return 'jpg';
    } else if ( preg_match('/png/i', $ext) ) {
        return 'png';
    } else if ( preg_match('/gif/i', $ext) ) {
        return 'gif';
    } else {
        return '';
    }
}

function getPictures() {
    global $max_width, $max_height, $imagedir;
    if ( $files = scandir($imagedir) ) {
        $lightbox = rand();
        echo '<ul id="pictures">';
        foreach ($files as $file) {
            $full_path = $imagedir.'/'.$file;
            if ( !is_dir($file) ) {
                $finfo = pathinfo($full_path); 
                $ext = $finfo['extension'];
                if ( ($type = getPictureType($ext)) == '' ) {
                    continue;
                }

                $name = $finfo['filename'];
                $title = str_replace("_"," ",$name);
                echo '<li><a href="'.$name.'">';
                echo '<img src="thumbs/'.$file.'" class="pictures" alt="'.$file.'" />';
                echo '</a>';
                echo ''.$title.'';
                echo '</li>';
            }
        }
        echo '</ul>';

    }
}