Check multiple folders for a file?

If I have multiple folders with files in each, ie:

folder_1
banana.txt
apple.txt

folder_2
peach.txt
strawberry.txt

folder_3
plum.txt
coconut.txt

Now lets say I am adding banana.txt to folder_3. I don't want it in folder 1 anymore.

So what I want to do is create a file called banana.txt in folder_3 and then have some kind of loop that will go through all the folders and delete banana.txt from all folders (except, of course, folder_3)

Here's what I have so far:

$filename = "banana.txt";

if (file_exists($filename)) {
  unlink($myFile);
fclose($fh);

} else {
    //
}

Code (markup):

That's what I want to do, but I realise I have to put that code inside some sort of loop which opens all the folders - but I I don't know how.

 

This is the code I am going to use if all else fails. I will have to make 23 instances of it. Here's an example of 2 of them:

			//==see if file is in another category and delete it
			$file_1  = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/categories/1/".$youtube_username.".txt";
			if ((file_exists($file_1)) && ($file_1 != $file_new) ) {
        unlink($myFile);
      }
			$file_2  = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . "/categories/2/".$youtube_username.".txt";
			if ((file_exists($file_1)) && ($file_1 != $file_new) ) {
        unlink($myFile);
      }
			//==end see if file is in another category and delete it

Code (markup):

 

There are dozen ways to do this in PHP. I suggest that you look at the glob function or the dir class (you can find the references on php manual website).

 

Quickie:
If folders are always have numeric pattern in

$total_folders = 3;
$file_to_delete = 'banana.txt';

for ($i=1; $i<=$total_folders; $i++)
      unlink( "$_SERVER[DOCUMENT_ROOT]/categories/$i/$file_to_delete" );

Code (markup):

I hope it helps.

 

// List of all the folders
$folder_list = array('folder_1', 'new_folder_2',' folder_2');

// List of files (key - filename, value - foldername)
$file_add = array('banana.txt' => 'folder_1', 
                         'apples.txt' => 'folder_2');

// Loop through all files
foreach($file_add as $file_name => $folder_name)
{
     // Loop through all folders
     foreach($folder_list as $this_folder)
     {
           // If file exists in this folder and this folder is not the copy to folder
           if(is_file($this_folder . '/' . $file_name) && $this_folder != $folder_name) {
                      // If file hasn't been copied over to the copy to folder, move it
                      if(!is_file($folder_name . '/' . $file_name)) {
                                 rename($this_folder . '/' . $file_name, $folder_name . '/'. $file_name);
                      } else {
                      // Otherwise remove it
                                 unlink($this_folder . '/' . $file_name);
                      }
           }
     }
}

PHP:

Hope it helps..

 

In my previous answer I suggested using glob or dir. Here is an example of how you would use the glob function:

<?php
// -- wild card ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------v
$search = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . "categories" . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . "*" . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $youtube_username . ".txt";
$ignore = $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . "categories" . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . "1" . DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR . $youtube_username . ".txt";
// -- the folder to ignore -----------------------------------------------------------------------^
$files = glob($search);
foreach($files as $file) {
    // we perform realpath() on paths so that the character-case and slashes of both paths become consistent
    if (realpath($file) != realpath($ignore)) {
        // unlink($file);
        echo "unlink($file)<br>";
    }
}
?>

PHP:

 

use an if statment to check if the file exists in the folder if so delete it if not check the next with an else if statement following it