What are the potential pitfalls when trying to read directories in PHP, as discussed in the forum thread?

When trying to read directories in PHP, potential pitfalls include not checking if the directory exists before attempting to read it, not handling permission issues, and not properly handling errors that may occur during the reading process. To solve these issues, it is important to first check if the directory exists using `is_dir()` function, handle any potential permission issues using `is_readable()` function, and use error handling techniques like try-catch blocks to handle any errors that may occur during the reading process.

$directory = "/path/to/directory";

if (is_dir($directory)) {
    if (is_readable($directory)) {
        try {
            $files = scandir($directory);
            foreach ($files as $file) {
                // do something with each file
            }
        } catch (Exception $e) {
            echo "Error reading directory: " . $e->getMessage();
        }
    } else {
        echo "Directory is not readable.";
    }
} else {
    echo "Directory does not exist.";
}