hi. i am writing a cache module in php. it tries to write a cache with a $string+timestamp as a filename. i dont have problem with writing the cache. the problem is i do a foreach loop to get the cache that i want. this is the logic that i use for getting the cache foreach ($filenames as $filename){ if(strstr($filename,$cachename)){//if found if(check_timestamp($filename,time())) display_cace($filename); break; } } but when it tries to get and read the cache, it slows the server down. imagine that i have 10000 cache file in a folder, and i need to check for every file in that cache folder. so how do you think the best way of doing this. here i explain again, because even me still dont understand my written question.. :D i write cache file with this format filename_timestamp.. e.g cache_function_random_news_191982899010 in a folder ./cache/ when i want to get the cache, i only pass "cache_function_random_news_" and check recursively on that folder. if i find something with that needle on a file name, display it, and break. but checking recursively on a 10000 files in a folder is not a good thing yeah? please give me your opinion ok, that would clarify more. thanks.