and i wrote a mistake myself: it should be
while ($directory_empty [...]

When you found 1 file or directory you can stop looping, you will loop trough the entire directory for all files in it. Won’t be a problem with a small amount, but still. I would suggest something like:

$directory_empty = true;
$directory = dir(’path_to_directory’);
while ($empty && FALSE !== ($item = $directory->read())) {
if ($item != ‘.’ && $item != ‘..’) {
$directory_empty = false;
}
}

Furthermore, you forgot to declare $directory_empty and initialize it to true, both your methods will always result in a filled directory

No, Geoff is right – think about it…

if the filename is not ‘.’ AND not ‘..’ then it MUST be a file or directory (i.e. not the current dir or parent dir)

$item can’t be equal to ‘.’ and ‘..’ at the same time, so ($item != ‘.’ || $item != ‘..’) will ALWAYS evaluate to TRUE!

Also you need to set
$directory_empty = TRUE;
at the beginning, otherwise $directory_empty will remain unset and therefore always == FALSE

Thanks for the comment.

EDIT: You are correct, I have changed the code.

if ($item != ‘.’ && $item != ‘..’)