What are some best practices for loading images into an array in PHP?

When loading images into an array in PHP, it is important to ensure that the images are properly validated and sanitized to prevent security vulnerabilities. One best practice is to use functions like `file_exists()` and `is_file()` to check if the image files exist and are valid before loading them into the array. Additionally, using functions like `glob()` can help to easily retrieve a list of image files in a directory.

// Define the directory where the images are stored
$directory = 'images/';

// Initialize an empty array to store the image file names
$images = array();

// Get a list of image files in the directory
$imageFiles = glob($directory . '*.{jpg,jpeg,png,gif}', GLOB_BRACE);

// Loop through the image files and add them to the images array
foreach ($imageFiles as $file) {
    if (file_exists($file) && is_file($file)) {
        $images[] = $file;
    }
}

// Print out the array of image file names
print_r($images);