Access image with PHP when the file name is unknown - php

Question

How could I get image using PHP if I don't know it's name?
Explanation: when user uploads image to the server, the image gets such name: user_id_timestamp.jpg. Now I want to access this image, but I only know half of it's name: <img src="user_id_*.jpg"/>. The * part is unknown. Thanks for help.

Answer 1

I think your looking for glob()
So you can do something like this:
<?php
$userId = 234567865;
foreach (glob($userId . "_*.jpg") as $filename)
echo "$filename size " . filesize($filename) . "<br />";
?>
Example output could be:
234567865_1418760613.jpg size 879394
EDIT:
If you want to stop the script if you found the image you can use this:
<?php
$userId = 234567865;
$pattern = $userId . "_*.jpg";
foreach (glob($pattern) as $filename) {
if (strpos($filename, $userId) !== true) {
echo "User: $userId File: $filename";
break;
}
}
?>
Example output could be:
User: 234567865 File: 234567865_1418760151.jpg
If you have multiple files from the same user and you want the image with the newest timestamp use this:
<?php
$userId = 234567865;
$pattern = $userId . "_*.jpg";
$last = 0;
$newest = 0;
foreach (glob($pattern) as $filename) {
if(substr($filename, strpos($filename, "_") + 1) > $last)
$newest = $filename;
$last = substr($filename, strpos($filename, "_") + 1);
}
echo "The newest avatar image from user: $userId is: $newest";
?>
Example output could be:
The newest avatar image from user: 234567865 is: 234567865_1418760151.jpg
For more information see: http://php.net/manual/en/function.glob.php