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Random File

Picks a file at random from the given directory. Accepts wildcards.

Info

Source Code ( 39 lines )

function rand_file($dir, $pattern = "-no-pattern-") {

    /* returns the name and path of a random file. If $base is a directory,                * and $pattern is not supplied any file inside it $base can be chosen.
     * $pattern accepts regular expressions, so you can match all files
     * beginning with the letter "n" by calling with directory/n+
     * slightly revised version removes the world's worst nested ifs
     */

    $direc = (is_dir($dir)) ? $direc = $dir : $direc = dirname($dir);

    if (isset($direc)):
        $dh = opendir($direc);
    else:
        return false;
    endif;

    while ($file = readdir($dh)) {

        /* get a list of files in the directory. We're only looking at files
         * so we can't return a link or a directory
         */

        if (is_file("${direc}/${file}") && (ereg("$pattern", "$file") ||
        $pattern == "-no-pattern-"))

             $file_list[] = $file;

    }

    closedir($dh);

    srand((double)microtime() * 100000);

    /* pick something from the file list at random */

    return (sizeof($file_list) > 0) ? $file_list[rand(0, (sizeof($file_list)
    -1))] : false;

}