problems looping through scandir return

[Jeffry Killen <jekillen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello;

I have encountered this issue before and solved it.
But today it got me going around in circles again for
several hours.

The issue:

$_list = [];
if($_list = scandir( [valid directory] ) === false)
  {
   return // some error string;
}

Now there is code to loop through $_list
It just keeps trying to loop and nothing in the array is processed

It should have been
if(  (  $_list = scandir( [valid directory]  )  ) === false)
  {
   return // some error string;
 }

Now the loop sees a valid array in $_list and can process the
$_list items

So, is it possible that an error or warning could be issues for
this type of situation?. The php interpreter seems to just be
confused.

I am used to having php poke its finger in my face when I
got it wrong, syntax wise.

Thanks for attention
JK