new Imagick() is not accepting certain array - php

Question

I am trying to create a new instance of Imagick:
$original = new Imagick($array);
I do this in two different instances. One way always works, and the other way always fails, but they use the same exact array (the array isn't always identical, but for ease of explanation, I am showing an example that happens to use identical arrays). Here is a var_dump of each array:
Working Array:
array(3) { [0]=> string(20) "image_files/bbb0.jpg" [1]=> string(20) "image_files/bbb1.jpg" [2]=> string(20) "image_files/bbb2.jpg" }
Failing Array:
array(3) { [0]=> string(20) "image_files/bbb0.jpg" [1]=> string(20) "image_files/bbb1.jpg" [2]=> string(20) "image_files/bbb2.jpg" }
As you can see, they are identical, so why is my PHP dying at
$new = new Imagick($array);
Is there something different about the second array that I'm not seeing?
EDIT: Here's the code that constructs the array that is failing:
$n = $_GET["n"];
$city = preg_replace("/[0-9]/", "", $n);
$num = preg_replace("/".$city."/","",$n);
// create an array to hold directory list
$results = array();
// create a handler for the directory
$directory = '../image_files';
$handler = opendir($directory);
while ($file = readdir($handler)) {
// if file isn't this directory or its parent, add it to the results
if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {
// check with regex that the file format is what we're expecting and not something else
if (preg_match("/^".$city."[1-9][0-9]\.jpg$/i",$file)) {
if (preg_match("/^".$city.$num."\.jpg$/i",$file)) {
unlink("../image_files/".$file);
} else {
$results[] = "../image_files/" . $file;
}
} else if (preg_match("/^".$city."[0-9]\.jpg$/i",$file)) {
if (preg_match("/^".$city.$num."\.jpg$/i",$file)) {
unlink("../image_files/".$file);
} else {
$results[] = "../image_files/" . $file;
}
}
}
}
sort($results);
$i = 0;
$newResults = array();
foreach( $results as $key => $value ) {
$old = $value;
//echo "old: " . $old . " ";
if (preg_match("/[1-9][0-9]/",$value)) {
$newstr = preg_replace("/[1-9][0-9]/", $i."temp", $value);
} else if (preg_match("/[0-9]/",$value)) {
$newstr = preg_replace("/[0-9]/", $i."temp", $value);
}
$newResults[] = $newstr;
//echo "new: " . $newstr . "<br>";
rename($old,$newstr);
$i++;
}
// create an array to hold directory list
$results = array();
// create a handler for the directory
$directory = '../image_files';
$handler = opendir($directory);
while ($file = readdir($handler)) {
// if file isn't this directory or its parent, add it to the results
if ($file != "." && $file != "..") {
$old = $file;
$new = preg_replace("/temp/", "", $file);
rename("../image_files/".$old,"../image_files/".$new);
}
}
$finalResults = array();
foreach( $newResults as $key => $value ) {
$newstr = str_replace("../", "", $value);
$newstr = str_replace("temp","",$newstr);
$finalResults[] = $newstr;
}
sort($finalResults);
createMontage($finalResults,"-a",$city);

Answer 1

The problem was in the directory structure of the PHP files.
The "working array" is being created from the base directory.
The "failing array" is being created from a directory named actions.
It doesn't matter where the script you're running exists, it matters what loaded that script (ie. Was it loaded from the root dir via include or require? Or was is called directly www.example.com/scripts/script.php). This will determine how to construct your path to other files.